Nicolás Maduro | Venezuela: What crimes does the United States accuse him of to offer 25 million dollars for his capture

Last Friday, January 10, the government of USA increased the reward for information leading to the capture of Nicolas Maduro from 15 to 25 million dollars. The announcement was made the same day that the Chavista president assumed power for the next six years in Venezuela, in what Washington described as a “fraudulent presidential inauguration.”

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) The Treasury Department also raised the reward for the capture of Diosdado Hair Minister of the Interior and number 2 of Chavismo. In addition, he included in his list the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrinofor whom he offers 15 million dollars.

The rewards offered against Maduro and Cabello are the maximum amounts authorized in USA for the crimes of which they are accused.

What does the United States accuse Maduro of?

Specifically, The United States accuses Maduro and those close to him to convert Venezuela in a criminal emporium at the service of drug trafficking and of terrorists. The charges include money laundering.

When in March 2020 the then United States Attorney General William Barr announced the filing of criminal charges against Maduro and a $15 million reward for his capture.said that the Chavista president and Cabello They conspired with the Colombian FARC guerrilla to “flood the US with cocaine” and use drug sales “as a weapon against” the North American nation.

That time, the United States Department of Justice also accused Maduro of having received US$5 million from the FARC in 2006when he was Hugo Chávez’s chancellor.

The money was used to purchase palm oil extraction equipment from Malaysia.with the aim of laundering millions of dollars from illicit activities, according to the indictment.

The Suns Cartel

According to USAsince at least 1999, Maduro, Cabello, Hugo Carvajal (who was head of military intelligence during the Hugo Chávez regime) y Clíver Alcalá (military ally of Chávez and now enemy of Maduro), acted as leaders and managers of Los Soles Cartelan alleged drug trafficking mafia that would be entrenched in the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB).

The prosecution maintains that Maduro and the other members of the Los Soles Cartel abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted Venezuela’s legitimate institutions, including parts of the military, the intelligence apparatus, the National Assembly and the Judiciary, to facilitate the shipment of tons of cocaine to the United States.

Washington reports that since 1999, while the FARC tried to negotiate peace with the Colombian government, guerrilla leaders agreed with the bosses of the Los Soles Cartel to relocate some of the guerrilla operations in Venezuelaunder the protection of that cartel.

Afterwards, The FARC and the Los Soles Cartel sent processed cocaine from Venezuela to the United States through transshipment points located in the Caribbean and Central America (specifically Honduras), the indictment states.

For maritime drug shipments leaving Venezuela were used fast boats, fishing boats and container ships.

While air shipments were often made from clandestine airstrips located in the state Hurry.

According to the United States Department of State, approximately 75 unauthorized flights suspected of terrorist activities drug trafficking entered Honduran airspace only in 2010 from Venezuela.

“We estimate that between 200 and 250 metric tons of cocaine were taken from Venezuela along these routes. Those 250 metric tons are equivalent to 30 million lethal doses,” Barr said in 2020.

“In his role as leader of the Los Soles Cartel, Maduro Moros negotiated shipments of tons of cocaine produced by the FARC, ordered the Los Soles Cartel to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC, coordinated foreign affairs with Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking, and requested assistance from FARC leaders to train an unauthorized militia group that functioned, in essence, as a unit of the armed forces to the Los Soles Cartel,” the accusation states.

Both Maduro as Cabello They could face sentences of between 20 years in prison and life in prison if they are tried in the United States.

In March 2020, Maduro rejected the charges and said the accusations were false.

He also accused then-US officials of behaving like “racist 19th century cowboys” by offering a reward for his capture.