The U.S. designates the Cartel de los Soles, led by Diosdado Cabello, as a transnational terrorist organization: "We will use every resource to prevent Maduro from destabilizing our hemisphere"

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Cartel de los Soles, led by high-ranking officials of the Chavista regime, as a transnational terrorist group on July 25, adding it to its Specially Designated Nationals List.

The designation, according to OFAC, entails the freezing of assets under U.S. jurisdiction and secondary sanctions for third parties that collaborate with the criminal organization led by Diosdado Cabello, the number two of dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the measure "further exposes the illegitimate Maduro regime’s facilitation of narco-terrorism through terrorist groups like Cartel del los Soles."

The designation, according to OFAC, involves the freezing of assets under U.S. jurisdiction and secondary sanctions for third parties collaborating with the criminal organization led by Diosdado Cabello, the second-in-command in the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The Department of State's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs denounced in a post on X that the Cartel de los Soles is also formed by high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including dictator Maduro, who was accused of facilitating the distribution of drugs to the United States.

"The United States is designating the Venezuela-based Cartel de Los Soles for supporting U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel. Managed by dictator Nicolás Maduro, this group supports terrorists who invade our country to traffic narcotics, enrich themselves, and inflict violence on American communities."

The office also announced that, with this designation, "the United States will use all the resources at our disposal to prevent Maduro from continuing to profit from destroying American lives and destabilizing our hemisphere."

Neither the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry nor any senior officials of the Chavista regime have yet responded to the designation; however, on previous occasions, Maduro rejected these accusations, calling them "smear campaigns" by Washington, which he recommended to focus on reducing domestic drug consumption.

The move comes after Republican Senator Rick Scott requested President Donald Trump to designate the Cartel de los Soles and the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), one of the Maduro regime's repressive bodies, as terrorist organizations.

In a letter sent to the White House in March, Scott claimed that "Both Venezuelan cartels are led and operated by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his deputy Diosdado Cabello Rondón, and each poses a significant threat to our national security," while denouncing their role in cocaine trafficking to the U.S.

"Under the illegitimate Maduro regime, Venezuela poses a substantial threat to democracies across Latin America, and its state-sanctioned drug trafficking activities undermine our nation’s counternarcotics goals in the region. Designating Cartel de los Soles and DGCIM as foreign terrorist organizations is a necessary step to disrupt their malign influence and protect the American people from the deadly flow of illegal drugs into our communities," Scott wrote at the time. Today, the Republican senator thanked the Trump administration for the designation.

With this move, Washington appears to raise the pressure on the Maduro regime right after reaching a new hostage deal and controversially lifting restrictions on Chevron to return to drilling for oil in Venezuela.