Trump administration designates Maduro as a ‘terrorist organization leader’

The Donald Trump administration on Monday declared the Cartel de los Soles a “foreign terrorist organization” and Nicolás Maduro as its leader.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who announced this step about a week ago, had accused the organization, known as the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), of being “responsible for acts of terrorist violence in the Western Hemisphere.”

This move, planned for Monday, came as Trump was considering military action against Venezuela, despite raising the possibility of a meeting with Maduro.

According to Axios, Trump told his advisors that he plans to meet directly with Nicolás Maduro, even though the US has declared the Venezuelan president the “leader of a terrorist organization.”

An official familiar with the discussions said, “Right now, no one is planning to move to shoot or kidnap him. I wouldn’t say never, but that’s not the plan at the moment. In the meantime, we will blow up boats carrying drugs. We will stop drug trafficking.”

The State Department statement also mentioned the reward offered for Maduro:

In 2020, the State Department initially offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro. On January 10, 2025, the department increased the offer to $25 million. Following the Treasury Department’s sanctioning of the Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on July 25, 2025, the State Department announced on August 7, 2025, that it was again increasing the reward, this time to as much as $50 million. Maduro, as the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, is the first target in the history of the Narcotics Rewards Program with a reward offer exceeding $25 million.

During the US military operation in the Caribbean, known as “Operation Southern Spear,” at least 83 people were killed in 21 separate attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs.

Also on Monday, General Dan Caine, the military mastermind behind Southern Spear, visited Puerto Rico, where as many as 10,000 soldiers, sailors, and pilots are stationed.

Officially, Southern Spear is a counternarcotics force. Unofficially, it is linked to a regime change operation in Caracas.

A White House official said, “We have covert operations, but they are not designed to kill Maduro. They are designed to stop drug trafficking. [But] if Maduro goes, we won’t shed any tears.”

A US official told Axios that a date has not yet been set for the Trump-Maduro meeting, which is in the “planning stages.” No one wants to speculate on what Trump will say to Maduro or how he will say it; the cliché “all options are on the table” applies.

The official stated:

“Maduro is a narco-terrorist. If you want to represent the president’s thinking, always start with that word. Diplomats tell us that Maduro will say, ‘Trust me. I will hold new elections in three years. You can come and take all the oil. I will stop sending it to Russia.’ He has been saying these things for years but never keeps his word. That’s why diplomats tell us we should be skeptical.”

US officials also voiced a strange, unverifiable claim: according to them, one of the difficulties in persuading Maduro to resign is that his supporters in Cuba “might execute him if he bows to US pressure and steps down.”

Critics of Trump’s Venezuela policy have repeatedly tried to blame Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio for the military threat.

But administration officials say Rubio was appointed to these dual roles because he reflects Trump’s wishes.

A third US official said, “The hawk on Venezuela is Donald Trump, followed by [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Stephen Miller and Marco Rubio.”

Officials say Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Caine are conducting an operation to “preserve the president’s options.” Rubio has purged personnel from the State Department and national security bureaucracies who oppose Trump’s “aggressive” foreign policy style, minimizing their numbers.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also said last week that the imminent designation of the Cartel de los Soles as a “terrorist organization” would give the “US a range of new options” for dealing with Maduro.

In an interview with the conservative news channel OAN, Hegseth did not elaborate on what these options were and refused to say whether the US military was planning to attack ground targets in Venezuela.

The Secretary said, “So no option is off the table, but no option is automatically on the table either.”

Speaking to PBS, Trump administration officials indicated they find it difficult to envision a situation where Maduro remaining in power would be an “acceptable” outcome.

As Trump considers a range of military and civilian options, including covert CIA operations, there is a strong belief within the administration that Maduro’s rule is “not sustainable.”

An official added that Trump is listening carefully to his intelligence team, which has informed him that rumors in Venezuela indicate growing concern among Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials as US attacks continue. The official said Trump is currently “very pleased and satisfied” with the impact of the attacks.