I’d literally just wrapped up writing an article for our VIP subscribers on why Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela is having a bad weekend — if you haven’t, go check it out and, at the very least, watch that loser sing “Imagine” by John Lennon — when Secretary of State Marco Rubio made Maduro’s weekend a whole lot worse.
Related: Maduro May Be Singing John Lennon, But It’s a Bad Weekend to Be a Narco-Terrorist Dictator
On Sunday evening, Rubio announced via X that the State Department is finally declaring Maduro’s Cartel de los Soles a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Back in July, Scott Bessent and the Treasury Department declared Cartel de los Soles a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
.@StateDept intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Headed by the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro, the group has corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela and is responsible for terrorist violence conducted by and with other…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) November 16, 2025
Later in the evening, the State Department put out an official statement from Rubio, indicating that the designation would take effect on November 24. Here’s more:
The Department of State intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), effective November 24, 2025. Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary. Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government. Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.
The United States will continue using all available tools to protect our national security interests and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists.
The Treasury’s actions were more banking and asset-oriented, while the State Department’s move is heavier, more deliberate, and requires a lot more proof that the organization in question is a legitimate threat to national security or United States nationals. I was actually curious myself as to why Rubio didn’t do this sooner, especially when he’s designated groups like Tren de Aragua, who either work for or cooperate with Maduro, but either way, it’s done. Or will be next week.
I should also point out that the United States is not the only country in the region to make a move like this. Several of our neighbors, including Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay, have declared Cartel de los Soles a terrorist organization or whatever their national equivalent is as well. Both chambers of Colombia’s legislature have also attempted to do this, but el presidente Gustavo Petro, who has spent most of his weekend on X arguing with a fake Homeland Security account, refuses to approve it because commie bros gotta stick together.
This situation has been changing by the hour this weekend, and things just got a bit more interesting. As I’m writing this, Donald Trump is speaking on the matter, telling reporters that “we may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out. They would like to talk.”
.@POTUS on Venezuela: “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out — but they would like to talk.” pic.twitter.com/ooeKngFUch
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 16, 2025
Maybe Maduro is ready to step down and willing to negotiate that. We’ll see what happens. It certainly sounds like something is imminent.
By the way, there’s a lot of confusion about what Cartel de los Soles is because it’s not a cartel in the traditional sense, like the ones that run the streets in Mexico. It’s more narco network run by current and former Venezuelan military officials under the protection and leadership (and participation) of Maduro’s regime. As a matter of fact, the name, Cartel de los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, comes from the four gold suns on their military uniforms. This group moves drugs to the U.S., Europe, and other parts of North and South America, and it has ties to organizations ranging from Colombian terrorist groups to Hezbollah to Tren de Aragua. Maybe if I have time this week, I’ll take a deeper dive into that.
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