Inside Venezuela’s ‘Cartel of the Suns’: How a military network became key to the cocaine trade

Inside Venezuela’s ‘Cartel of the Suns’ (File image)

For more than twenty years, American and Colombian officials have argued that Venezuela’s armed forces and senior government insiders have quietly enabled huge quantities of Colombian cocaine to pass through the country. Even though Venezuela produces almost no coca and has few processing labs, its geography makes it an ideal gateway. Smugglers move shipments across the porous border from Colombia, hand them to military officers or intermediaries who provide “safe passage,” and then route them by boat or aircraft toward the Caribbean, Central America and Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Former Colombian intelligence director Alberto Romero describes the system as a full logistical package. According to him, National Guard and Army units help secure airstrips, shield trafficking routes and organise departures. US officials say this network is known internally as the Cartel of the Suns, named after the sun-shaped insignia worn by Venezuelan generals. The title reflects the belief that elements of the armed forces have been deeply embedded in the trade for years.

A group now in Washington’s crosshairs

The Biden administration had maintained economic pressure on Venezuela, but President Trump’s second administration has taken a harder line. Washington now plans to designate the Cartel of the Suns as a foreign-terrorist organisation. Officials say this reflects intelligence suggesting that the network reaches into the highest levels of government and that Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro sits atop it. The US has placed a fifty-million-dollar bounty on Maduro and authorised a large naval deployment in the Caribbean under Operation Southern Spear.

American forces have already destroyed more than twenty suspected drug-bearing vessels since September, killing more than eighty people. Washington says these operations are intended to cut supply routes and force the Venezuelan government to dismantle trafficking networks. At the same time, Trump has said he is open to negotiations with Maduro, telling reporters that diplomacy remains possible even as the military buildup continues.

Maduro’s government rejects the allegations

Maduro’s administration denies facilitating any drug movement. In a letter to President Trump earlier this year, he called the accusations fabricated and argued they were designed to justify potential military action. But the allegations are not new. A 2020 US indictment laid out years of coordination between Venezuelan officials and Colombian guerrilla groups, claiming they used cocaine flows both for profit and as a way to destabilise the United States.

Successive US indictments have named senior Venezuelan figures, including Diosdado Cabello and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino. Both deny wrongdoing and say the Cartel of the Suns is an American invention. Analysts argue that while Venezuela does not have a cartel in the traditional sense, corruption, economic collapse and political survival have produced a diffuse system in which military officers control access to lucrative smuggling corridors. Their loyalty, maintained in part through the benefits of these routes, is seen as critical to Maduro’s grip on power.

A history of high-level involvement

American and Colombian investigators have linked senior Venezuelan officers to trafficking incidents dating back to the early 2000s. One infamous case involved a DC-9 aircraft carrying more than five tons of cocaine from Caracas to Mexico. Another case sent more than a ton of cocaine to Paris. Prosecutors say Venezuelan officials created what they called an air bridge, with dozens of cocaine-laden flights to Central America in a single year.

Some military figures have already been convicted in the United States. Hugo Carvajal, a former intelligence chief, and Cliver Alcalá, another senior general, pleaded guilty to participating in trafficking operations and aiding guerrilla fighters. Other high-profile arrests, including relatives of Maduro’s wife, deepened US suspicions about the extent of official involvement.

A network tied to political survival

Analysts believe the structure of this network explains why Maduro has retained military loyalty despite economic collapse, sanctions and political upheaval. With so many senior officers implicated, any change of government would expose them to prosecution. That creates strong incentives to stay aligned with Maduro. As one US academic noted, the regime’s stability is closely linked to the protection of those who benefit from the trade.

Washington’s planned terrorist designation signals a new phase in US-Venezuela relations. Whether it leads to confrontation, negotiation or a mix of both remains uncertain. What is clear is that the allegations surrounding the Cartel of the Suns have become a central factor in how the United States confronts Maduro’s government and how Venezuela navigates its deepening political crisis.