Paraguay makes official decree designating Maduro's Cartel de los soles as a terrorist group, in line with US and Ecuador

In a context of growing international pressure, the Government of Paraguay, through President Santiago Peña, officially appointed the Cártel de los Soles, led by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his second-in-command, Diosdado Cabello, as an international terrorist organization, joining the United States and Ecuador.

"Designate the transnational criminal organization called 'Cartel de los Soles' as an international terrorist organization. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is hereby endorsed," reads the decree signed Friday by Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, who made the measure official following a request from the country's Senate. The measure comes just days after Paraguay also signed an unprecedented Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) with Washington.

Paraguay thus became the third country in recent weeks to declare the transnational criminal group led by dictator Maduro a terrorist group, who has returned to the center of international criticism due to his links with the Tren de Aragua criminal gang - also listed as a terrorist group in the U.S. - and various drug cartels in the region, such as the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel -which benefits directly from the routes facilitated by the Cartel of the Suns-, or Colombian narco-guerrillas such as the FARC and the ELN.

Maduro, whose legitimacy is clearly questioned by most of the countries and international organizations in the region after the several fraudulent elections held in Venezuela -the most recent on July 28, 2024, is facing strong international pressure led by the Trump Administration, which in the last month has taken several measures that directly impact the interests of the Chavista regime.

Among the measures taken are: the doubling of the bounty placed on Maduro, which amounted to $50 million, the highest in U.S. history; the order secretly approved by Trump authorizing the Pentagon to use force against Latin American drug cartels - including the Cartel de los soles, the seizure of $700 million against the dictator, and the deployment of 'destroyer' warships and 4.000 marines in the Caribbean Sea, near the Venezuelan coasts, to fight against narco-terrorism.

After the United States designated the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist group, senior officials in Washington began contacting various allied governments for support. Ecuador and Paraguay were the first to join the White House, giving greater robustness and weight to the allegations against Maduro and his regime.

Other governments aligned with Washington are likely to join the move, increasing pressure directly against Caracas, amid a wave of fierce repression against dissidents in Venezuela and opposition political leaders, especially María Corina Machado, who remains in hiding to protect her life.