Colombia's Senate declares Maduro's Cartel de los Soles a terrorist organization, aligning with Washington and allied countries

Colombia's Senate on Tuesday approved a proposal that classifies the so-called Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles as a transnational criminal and terrorist organization, in a vote that gathered 33 votes in favor and registered around 20 abstentions, among them several legislators from the Historic Pact, the party led by leftist President Gustavo Petro.

The move makes it clear that the majority in Colombia's upper house aligns with the stance of the United States and other regional allies, who have already sanctioned and designated the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist group, linking senior officials of Nicolás Maduro with said criminal structure.

In fact, in the last month, the Trump administration even raised the reward for information leading to the capture of the dictator Maduro, head of the Cartel de los Soles along with his second-in-command, Diosdado Cabello, also indicted for drug trafficking in the U.S. Likewise, the U.S. Armed Forces have already sunk a total of three narco-boats linked to Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang also linked to Maduro, according to U.S. officials.

In the parliamentary debate in Colombia, the measure's promoters argued that the declaration responds to the group's role in drug trafficking, money laundering and the financing of various criminal structures affecting the region. The Colombian legislators also expressed the need for greater international cooperation to dismantle routes and financial networks articulated by the Maduro regime.

"The Senate of the Republic urges the national government, headed by President Gustavo Petro, to honor the international commitments assumed by the Colombian State in the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime,"  the proposal read by the Secretary General of the Senate, Diego Alejandro Gonzalez, states.

Despite the broad support, the initiative was not unanimous: representatives of the Historic Pact, an extreme left-wing group, questioned the formal existence of Cartel de los Soles and objected to Congress urging President Petro to make foreign policy decisions. Following the criticisms perpetrated by various leftist congressmen, a subsection obliging the president to execute concrete measures in line with the proposition was eliminated from the text.

The criticisms of the legislators of the Historical Pact are in line with what has been expressed by Colombian President Petro himself, who has publicly rejected the Cartel de los Soles label designated by Washington and other countries of the region. Such a discrepancy between the Executive and Congress underscores the internal Colombian political tension over how to deal with the cocaine cultivation and trafficking crisis, just after the Trump administration decided to decertify Colombia in its fight against drug trafficking.

According to the White House, Colombia, under Petro's government, has "notably failed" in its obligations and commitments to combat drug trafficking.

The tension between Washington and Bogota comes after Petro defended the Maduro regime and accused the Trump administration and other countries in the hemisphere, under the label of "extreme right," of wanting to carry out regime change in Venezuela.

"The cartel of the suns does not exist, it is the fictitious excuse of the extreme right to overthrow governments that do not obey them. The passage of Colombian cocaine through Venezuela, is controlled by the Junta of drug trafficking and its capos live in Europe and the Middle East," Petro said.