The United States intends to designate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — along with the Cartel de los Soles, the organization Washington claims he leads — as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), with Maduro explicitly named as its leader.
In a post to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced:
“@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 designated FTOs, as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”
The declaration comes just three days after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unveiled Operation Southern Spear, which he described as a sweeping campaign targeting alleged drug traffickers across the Western Hemisphere. It also follows President Donald Trump’s suggestion two days earlier that he had “made a decision” on Venezuela, coinciding with the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group — the largest in the U.S. Navy — to the Caribbean.
While Venezuela has long faced punitive sanctions, an FTO designation could significantly widen Washington’s legal and military options. Once a group receives this designation, a U.S. administration can, under the still-active 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), employ direct military force — the same authority used for two decades of counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and its affiliates. Congress has never repealed or seriously challenged the AUMF, making it one of Washington’s broadest and most durable war authorizations.
Speaking to reporters Sunday evening, Trump hinted that he “may have a discussion” with Maduro. Yet with a massive military buildup underway, new Pentagon directives issued, and a pending terrorism designation effectively targeting the entire Venezuelan state apparatus, many observers believe the situation may already have escalated too far for Trump to reverse course.