Free Republic

The Justice Department has backed off a dubious claim about President Nicolás Maduro that the Trump administration promoted last year in laying the groundwork to remove him from power in Venezuela: accusing him of leading a drug cartel called Cartel de los Soles. That claim traces back to a 2020 grand jury indictment of Mr. Maduro drafted by the Justice Department. In July 2025, copying language from it, the Treasury Department designated Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization. In November, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and President Trump’s national security adviser, ordered the State Department to do...

Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president of Venezuela who is now serving as acting president, accused Israel of orchestrating the U.S. operation that led to the capture of former leader Nicolás Maduro. Speaking in a televised address alongside senior figures from Maduro’s inner circle, Rodríguez blamed “the Zionists” for the events surrounding his arrest, echoing familiar rhetoric long used by Venezuela’s Chavista leadership to fault Israel and its allies for international pressure on the regime. “The attack on Venezuela has an undoubtedly Zionist character,” Rodríguez declared, offering no evidence to support the claim. She reiterated that Nicolás Maduro “is the only...