US labels Maduro-tied Cartel de los Soles as a terror organization. But it is not a cartel.

[Hume]

“It is not a group,” said Adam Isaacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America organization. “It’s not like a group that people would ever identify themselves as members. They don’t have regular meetings. They don’t have a hierarchy.”

US labels Maduro-tied Cartel de los Soles as a terror organization. It's not a cartel per se

President Donald Trump’s administration has increased pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.

apnews.com

 

[Hawkeye10]

Ya I heard this last week, cant remember from whom......the claim is fiction but the name they have given this imaginary cartel does come from Venezuela to give it the patina of truth.

 

[Hume]

Venezuelans began using the term Cartel de los Soles in the 1990s to refer to high-ranking military officers who had grown rich from drug-running. As corruption expanded nationwide, first under the late President Hugo Chávez and then under Maduro, its use loosely expanded to police and government officials as well as activities like illegal mining and fuel trafficking. The “suns” in the name refer to the epaulettes affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking military officers.