The United States will designate Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
In a statement, Rubio said the group is run by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose government the U.S. has called “illegitimate.”
“Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary,” Rubio said in a press release.
“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government,” he continued. “Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”
“The United States will continue using all available tools to protect our national security interests and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists,” he added.
The statement said the designation would take effect on Nov. 24.
President Trump said Sunday night, after the State Department designation, that he is open to talking to Maduro.
“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out,” he told reporters Sunday. “They would like to talk.”
The announcement comes hours after the U.S. Navy said the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean in what’s seen as an escalation in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Maduro. The U.S. has carried out a series of strikes in recent months against boats the administration says are smuggling illegal drugs in the region.
The U.S. military attacked another suspected drug boat and killed “three male narco-terrorists” based on orders from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, U.S. Southern Command announced on Sunday.
The president said his administration is keeping Congress informed about ongoing efforts to disrupt drug trafficking through Venezuela and Mexico but emphasized that he does not need lawmakers’ approval to act. He said communication with Congress is meant to keep them aware, not to seek authorization.
It was, according to CBS News, the 21st military strike against alleged narcotics-carrying vessels in the past few weeks — strikes that many Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump and Hegseth for.
The attack was on Saturday, according to an X post from SOUTHCOM on Sunday afternoon. An unnamed “designated terrorist organization” was carrying drugs aboard the vessel in the Eastern Pacific and was “struck in international waters,” according to the post. The boat was moving along a “known narco-trafficking route” and carrying drugs.
A brief clip of the boat being hit and bursting into flames was shared:
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