What’s in the US criminal indictment against Nicolás Maduro?

Who is in the indictment this time?

The indictment lists six individuals as defendants, including Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, his son Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, and Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

What are the charges?

The charges include “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.

The indictment accuses Maduro of having ties to six different gangs and drug trafficking groups, including two Colombian rebel factions – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc, and the National Liberation Army, ELN, as well as Tren de Aragua and two Mexican crime factions, the Sinaloa and the Zetas.

“Maduro and his co-conspirators have, for decades, partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world, and relied on corrupt officials throughout the region, to distribute tons of cocaine to the United States,” the complaint said.

How is it different than the 2020 indictment?

The indictment adds to the 2020 indictment that charged Maduro and 14 others with new charges of “narco-terrorism”, conspiracy to import cocaine, and gun charges. But it also adds Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who was not originally listed, and accuses her of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s national anti-drug office.

How comprehensive is the indictment?

The indictment goes into detail about Maduro’s alleged coordination with Farc, including alleging a meeting between Maduro and the group’s leaders through Maduro’s son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, or “Nicolasito”, to trade weapons for cocaine.

It is, however, vague about the precise nature of the alleged relationship between Maduro and the Mexican trafficking cartels. Critics of the Trump administration’s explicit rationale – to curb the flood on fentanyl into the US – point out that the deadly synthetic narcotic is mostly produced in Mexico via precursors from China, and would seldom be trafficked through Venezuela to the US.

The indictment alleges that in 2011, the Sinaloa Cartel’s then-leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán financed cocaine laboratories in Colombia and that the cocaine produced in those labs was then transported under the protection of Farc fighters into Venezuela.

Who might be helping US prosecutors?

Hugo Carvajal Barrios, nicknamed El Pollo, a former head of Venezuelan military intelligence during Hugo Chávez’s government, who is now awaiting sentencing in the US after pleading guilty to narco-terrorism, narcotics, and weapons offenses, might be helping US officials.

In a letter addressed to Donald Trump and “the People of the United States” last year, Carvajal said he hopes to “atone” by providing information that he claims could help US authorities counter threats from Venezuela’s leadership.

Carvajal alleged in the letter that the Venezuelan government evolved into a criminal enterprise during the Chávez era and that its leaders operate the “Cartel of the Suns” alongside the Venezuelan military – an alliance designed to harm the US – in collaboration with Colombian guerrilla groups, as well as Cuban operatives and Hezbollah.