The United States government has advanced a designation that changes the international landscape. Marco Rubio announced the reclassification of the Cártel de los Soles, organized within the leadership of Nicolás Maduro's regime, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), one of the harshest legal categories in the U.S. national security system.
Until today, the group was under the SDGT (Specially Designated Global Terrorist) category, a tool of the Department of the Treasury mainly aimed at financial sanctions.
However, moving to the Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list represents a qualitative leap. Chavismo is now legally considered what it is: a direct threat to U.S. national security.
What changes with the FTO designation
The FTO category grants Washington a much broader range of legal, diplomatic, and operational actions. Unlike SDGT—focused on freezing assets, cutting off funding, and limiting economic operations—the new category:
- Enables extraterritorial criminal prosecution against individuals linked to the group.
- Allows joint actions between the Department of State, Defense, and Homeland Security.
- Facilitates international cooperation in intelligence and apprehension of members.
- Authorizes stronger responses in cases of direct threats to U.S. citizens.
- In political terms, represents a point of no return: the Chavista regime is now officially considered an enemy of the State by Washington.
Maduro, between internal collapse and external isolation
The designation comes amid a scenario of growing regional tension, marked by systematic human rights violations, links to criminal organizations, and an expansion of drug trafficking involving high-ranking Chavista officials, including military officers, ministers, and intelligence operatives.
