The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has raised the bounty on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million for information leading to his arrest, setting a new record for the largest U.S. reward ever offered and doubling the $25 million once placed on Osama bin Laden.
On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the increase, accusing Maduro of leading the Cartel de los Soles, a network within Venezuela’s military allegedly involved in large-scale drug trafficking. She also cited Maduro’s reported ties to the Venezuelan criminal syndicate Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel. The Department of Justice alleges that under Maduro’s leadership, Venezuela has been used as a major transshipment point for narcotics bound for the United States and Europe.
The U.S. first placed a bounty on Maduro in March 2020, originally at $5 million under the first Trump administration. It was later raised to $25 million during President Joe Biden’s term before the latest doubling. Washington has consistently opposed Maduro’s rule, recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president in 2019 and Edmundo González as president-elect following disputed elections last year.
In April 2019, Trump supported Guaidó’s attempted coup against Maduro, an effort that ultimately failed and became one of the more embarrassing foreign policy setbacks of his first term.
Despite the unprecedented bounty, Washington has maintained selective engagement with Caracas. Trump recently authorized Chevron to resume operations in Venezuela, reversing a previous license revocation imposed under his “maximum pressure” campaign.
Venezuelan oil output has since rebounded as Chinese state firms replaced Western companies, with Beijing purchasing large volumes of crude. In a sign of shifting regional alignments, Brazil’s GOL Linhas Aéreas this week restarted nonstop flights between São Paulo and Caracas, a move analysts see as partly motivated by Brazil’s search for alternative partnerships following Trump’s tariff measures.