Trump administration formally designates Venezuela’s Maduro as member of a foreign terrorist organization

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on November 21, 2025. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The Trump administration could have expanded authority to take action against Venezuela starting Monday, as the U.S. designates Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization.

The designation of “Cartel de los Soles,” a phrase that experts say is more a description of allegedly corrupt government officials than an organized crime group, as a foreign terrorist organization will authorize President Donald Trump to impose fresh sanctions targeting Maduro’s assets and infrastructure. It doesn’t, however, explicitly authorize the use of lethal force, according to legal experts.

Still, administration officials have been making the case that the designation — one of the State Department’s most serious counterterrorism tools — will give the U.S. expanded military options for striking inside Venezuela.

Cartel de los Soles is used to describe a decentralized network of Venezuelan groups within the armed forces linked to drug trafficking, experts say. The Venezuelan president has always denied any personal involvement in drug trafficking, and his government has repeatedly denied the existence of the alleged cartel, which some experts suggest technically doesn’t exist in a conventional sense.

The designation, announced Nov. 16, comes as the U.S. military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops into the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded “Operation Southern Spear.” The U.S. military has killed dozens of people in boat strikes as part of the anti-drug-trafficking campaign.

Trump has been briefed by top officials on a range of options for action inside Venezuela, including strikes on military or government facilities and special operations raids. The option of doing nothing also still exists.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, and his senior enlisted adviser, David Isom, will visit Puerto Rico on Monday to thank service members supporting missions in the Caribbean Sea.

There is some public opposition to U.S. involvement in the region. According to a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, 70 per cent of Americans oppose the U.S. taking military action in Venezuela, compared with 30 per cent who favor action. Seventy-six percent of respondents say the Trump administration has not clearly explained the U.S. position on military action.

Officially, the Trump administration says it is working to cut down on illegal flows of migrants and drugs — but regime change is a possible side effect of those efforts. Trump is hoping that the pressure is enough to force Maduro to step down without taking direct military action, according to a U.S. official.

In a statement, the Venezuelan government rejected the designation of the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, calling it a “ridiculous fabrication.”

“This new maneuver will follow the same fate as previous and recurring aggressions against our country: failure,” the statement continued.

Trump has expressed some openness to a diplomatic resolution, saying last week that Maduro “would like to talk” and later suggesting that he would be open to speaking with him “at a certain time.”

The White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on the status of a potential Trump-Maduro conversation.

In a sign of the escalating tensions, the US on Thursday conducted its largest military display near Venezuela, as at least six U.S. aircraft appeared off the nation’s coast over the course of several hours, including a supersonic F/A-18E fighter jet, a B-52 strategic bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, according to a CNN review of open-source flight data.

And over the weekend, three international airlines canceled their flights departing from Venezuela after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over the country, according to Reuters.

CNN’s Avery Schmitz contributed to this report.

By Betsy Klein, Natasha Bertrand, Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood, CNN