The US justice department classified the Cartel De Los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) alongside ISIS and Al-Qaeda in November. 43 days later, the US has effectively admitted the organisation does not exist – at least not as a cartel in any conventional sense.

The fact is, Cartel De Los Soles was always shorthand for high-level government corruption in Venezuela. It’s use goes back to the 1990s. The ‘suns’ refer to a rank insignia worn by grifting senior military officials. Which means the US classified a slang term in the same category as actual terror groups.

Why, you may ask?

Well, the ‘cartel’ appears to have been a useful bogeyman to help justify the kidnap of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January 2026. An act almost universally decried as a massive contravention of international law in the days following since.

Including by the United Nation (UN) this morning, 6 Jan 2026:

The United Nations Human Rights Office has released a statement: “The international community must make clear that US intervention in Venezuela is a contravention of international law” pic.twitter.com/VXtS82oAKF

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) January 6, 2026

Law enforcement or military action?

And why the change now?

Well, the US has tried to frame its kidnap mission in Caracas – which killed up to 80 people – as a law enforcement matter. Now Maduro is in custody in New York, that classification of Cartel De Los Soles seems to have outlived it’s usefulness.  The truth is experts were saying Cartel de los Soles didn’t exist many months ago – well ahead of the American kidnap mission.

Phil Gunson, an analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, was one of them. He told the press in September 2025:

There is no such thing, so Maduro can hardly be its boss.

Also in September 2025, the Insight Crime thinktank (which is itself US State department-funded) said of the Cartel De Los Soles:

Rather than a hierarchical organization with Maduro directing drug trafficking strategies, the Cartel of the Suns is more accurately described as a system of corruption wherein military and political officials profit by working with drug traffickers.

Barefaced lies from the US over ‘Cartel De Los Soles’

According to a new rewritten version of the US indictment the Cartel De Los Soles is not a cartel at all. Rather it is a system of patronage for Venezuelan elites:

The profits of that illegal activity flow to corrupt rank-and-file civilian, military, and intelligence officials, who operate in a patronage system run by those at the top-referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, a reference to the sun insignia affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials.

As the New York Times notes, an older version of the indictment:

refers 32 times to Cartel de los Soles and describes Mr. Maduro as its leader, the new one mentions it twice and says that he, like his predecessor, President Hugo Chávez, participated in, perpetuated and protected this patronage system.

Government corruption is despicable, no doubt. But this is hardly comparable to a violent global narco-gang. But the truth is this ‘law enforcement’ angle has been extremely useful to the US.

Senior officials have used it to frame the Maduro kidnap as a matter of criminal extradition. Ignoring the fact it involved bombing, alleged cyber-attacks, special forces and other explicitly military tactics.

For example, Dan Caine, secretary of the joint chiefs of staff, said the mission was “at the request of the justice department”.

And secretary of state Marco Rubio said the kidnap was basically a law enforcement function, in which:

department of war supported the department of justice.

This is yet another example of how the US government has hollowed out and abused not only international law, but its own legal system too. More details will emerge as the show-trial of Maduro gets under way. But on this evidence, the US seems to have simply made up parts of its allegations – like the Cartel De Los Soles – against the kidnapped Venezuelan leader.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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