Paraguay's president, Santiago Peña, signed on Friday morning the decree that declares the Cártel de los Soles as an international terrorist organization, the criminal group operating on the Latin American continent whose leader is the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
"The transnational criminal organization known as 'Cartel de los Soles' is designated as an international terrorist organization. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall endorse this," the decree begins.
The Paraguayan government thus states that it "reaffirms its unwavering commitment to democracy, the Social Rule of Law, and the fight against international terrorist organizations and transnational organized crime in order to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
President Santiago Peña and dictator Nicolás Maduro. | La Derecha Diario
The United States' decision is transforming the region.
In his presidential proclamation, Peña highlights that on July 25, Donald Trump's government, a country that is a strategic ally of Paraguay, designated this narco-chavista group as a terrorist organization.
The United States' decision to legally classify Maduro as a narco dictator has caused a domino effect in the region, since countries such as Ecuador also labeled the Cártel de los Soles as terrorist last week.
United States authorities raised the reward to 50 million dollars in exchange for information leading to Maduro's arrest, accusing him of being one of the world's biggest drug traffickers. Trump's fight against drug trafficking has reached the point of sending three warships to the Caribbean, not ruling out the use of military action.