What is known about the Cartel of the Suns: origins, alleged members, and independent reporting?
Executive summary
The "Cartel of the Suns" is a label used since the early 1990s to describe alleged links between Venezuelan military officers, senior officials and illicit trafficking; the name references the sun insignia on generals' epaulettes [1]. U.S. authorities and investigative outlets portray it as a network of state-linked drug trafficking cells that has expanded over decades and been the subject of indictments, sanctions and contested narratives [2] [3] [4].
1. Origins and the meaning of the name
The moniker emerged in Venezuelan media in the early 1990s after accusations that National Guard officers aided cocaine trafficking, and the "suns" label comes from the sun-shaped insignia on Venezuelan generals’ epaulettes [1] [5]. Journalists and prosecutors used the term again in the 2000s as allegations of military involvement resurfaced, including reporting that linked specific generals and units to drug flows and corruption [6] [7].
2. Who is alleged to belong to it
U.S. prosecutions and press reporting have named a set of high‑level figures — including Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, Hugo Carvajal and others in superseding indictments — as leaders or managers of what U.S. filings call the Cártel de los Soles [2] [8]. U.S. Treasury and State Department actions have described the cartel as headed by Maduro and other high‑ranking regime figures and have tied it to material support for other criminal and terrorist groups [3] [9]. Independent investigative outlets and defectors have also accused figures such as Diosdado Cabello and senior military officers, while Venezuelan authorities and the accused have repeatedly denied the characterization [4] [10].
3. What the Cartel is said to do and how it’s structured
Analysts caution that the Cartel of the Suns is not typically portrayed as a single hierarchical cartel but rather as a loose network or system of cells embedded across branches of the armed forces and state institutions that facilitate drug trafficking, illegal mining, smuggling and money laundering [4] [7]. U.S. indictments allege long‑running collusion with Colombian guerrilla groups to move tons of cocaine through Venezuelan territory, and U.S. statements say the network sought to "flood" the United States with cocaine [8] [2]. InsightCrime and other specialists emphasize the label masks disparate networks operating with varying degrees of complicity from lower to higher ranks [4].
4. Independent reporting and evidence: strengths and limits
A mix of sources supports claims of military and official participation: U.S. indictments, DEA press releases and OFAC/Treasury designations document seizures, charges and sanctions tied to individuals alleged to be part of the network [8] [2] [3]. Investigative platforms like InSightCrime have assembled longlists of implicated officials and described the phenomenon as a decades‑long system [4]. At the same time, several independent analysts and Venezuelan commentators caution that evidence tying Nicolás Maduro personally to command-and-control of a classic cartel is contested and that the label can conflate distinct corrupt practices into a single narrative [11] [12]. Venezuelan government spokespeople and accused officials characterise U.S. claims as politically motivated and deny the existence of a cohesive cartel under their leadership [1] [10].
5. Political uses, agendas and information risks
The term functions both as investigative shorthand and as a geopolitical tool: U.S. law‑enforcement and Treasury designations have been deployed as pressure instruments against the Maduro government, while Venezuelan and allied voices call the label an invention used to justify sanctions and interventions [3] [1]. Journalistic observers warn the catchy "Cartel of the Suns" brand can simplify a complex pattern of state corruption and criminal collaboration into an image that serves policy messaging on both sides [12].
6. Bottom line
Documented episodes, indictments and sanctions substantiate that members of Venezuela’s security forces and some officials have taken part in drug trafficking and related crimes for decades, and U.S. authorities allege an organized network labeled the Cartel of the Suns led by senior officials [8] [2] [3]. Yet major independent analysts treat the concept as a useful but imprecise shorthand for a dispersed system of corrupt cells rather than a monolithic, centrally run cartel, and Venezuelan authorities deny the charges — leaving a mix of legal allegations, investigative reporting and contested political narratives that must be weighed separately [4] [11] [1].