And it was based on the designation of the Cartel that Maduro leads as a global terrorist organization, within the framework of the hardening of measures that includes other criminal groups operating in Latin America.
“Maduro’s drug regime has to face it with something more than rewards,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio by highlighting that it is a issue of national security in which he works jointly with the Department of Justice.
“We can use intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense or any other element of American power to attack them,” he said when he made the announcement on August 8, the same day he transpired that President Donald Trump secretly ordered the Pentagon to prepare for the use of military force.
Also the Undersecretary of State Christopher Landau, in the context of the intensification of the strategic pressure, said that “more things will be seen” in “the next few days and weeks”, after the announcement of the reward per mature of 50 million dollars.
The possible actions, announced by the US in chain and without detail, against the “narcoterrorism” of Venezuela, are the result of solid investigations in 10 years and “are legally armored” to ensure their internal protection, they affirm experts in intelligence and global security.
“All the weight of the US government is now focused as a state policy in the threat of Venezuela. And, unlike the past, the legal basis to deal with the problem is articulated,” said Jesús Romero, an ex -official of US Naval Intelligence.
And assures that the actions can be initiated “at any time.”
Sharing scenario
Romero, specializing in intelligence operations, explained that the decisions announced by the Trump government are based on title 50 of the code that authorizes the president directly to order five types of action against threats to the security of the nation.
Among them, the “intelligence activities”, referring to CIA operations and other agencies and include foreign intelligence collection, counterintelligence and analysis. This provision would regulate the performance against the Los Soles Cartel, on which, there is enough information.
There is also the “designation of terrorist organizations”, which would justify, in their opinion, legal or military actions, after the designation of the poster linked to Maduro, as a global terrorist organization. Romero does not rule out other legal sanctions.
In addition to mentioning the action of “sanctions and economic measures”, which give a floor to those imposed to the state -owned PDVSA, the expert referred to the “authority for military operations”, the fifth type of legal action that was mentioned by Rubio and that empowers the president for orders abroad. But said they must be based on title 10 referring to the Armed Forces.
“Any direct military action against Maduro, such as a forced arrest, would require explicit authorization and would be politically complex, due to Venezuelan sovereignty and the presence of allies such as Russia and China,” he warned.
Another executive decision, under Title 50 of the Code is “the seizure of the money of all hidden accounts, much more drastic measures,” according to Romero.
In his legal analysis, he warned that the actions that the US government can adopt must be contextualized in the light of chronologically events that occurred, such as executive orders, investigations and statements, particularly from the first Trump government.
Legal floor against Cartel de los Soles
“There is a diametrically drastic change between Trump’s two administrations,” he said. It is an unprecedented legal floor.
He explained that never before the US had made a decision “so direct, concrete and with strong legal basis” with title 50, such as today.
“Until the first Trump administration (2017-2021) Venezuela was considered only a threat,” and recalled that the first decision in that regard was issued by President Barack Obama, in March 2015.
On that date, Obama declared a “national emergency” for the “unusual and extraordinary” threat to national security and foreign policy caused by the Venezuelan situation, according to reports of the time.
In the South American country that year began an acute political and humanitarian crisis, after the protests of the previous year 2014 that left 43 dead, hundreds of injured and more than 3,000 detainees.
“Since then, no measures were taken, because there was no enough data or legal floor, but now it has it,” Romero said.
He considered that the official statement of the Suns Cartel as a specially designated global terrorist organization (SDGT), on July 25, is the milestone that determined a change in legal treatment, with new actions, against the Venezuelan regime.
Therefore, the Trump government has firmly reiterated the accusations against the cartel “directed by Nicolás Maduro Moros and other senior positions of the regime”, for supporting other foreign terrorist organizations that threaten the US peace and security, as he said.
He also does not know Maduro as legitimate president of the country, for the electoral fraud of 2024.
“All this shows that the US has ironed the legal status to be able to take the actions you are going to take. It has all the requirements to legally frame Venezuela as a terrorist threat,” said the specialist.
Security and extraterritoriality
Hugo Acha, an expert lawyer in global security, stressed that the US “had been receiving for a long time” information on how drug trafficking has been fully integrated “to the capabilities of its adversaries”, which would explain any action.
The series of “incontrastable” facts about what would be the greatest threat to the strategic security of the US led Trump, assuming the position last January 20, to dictate the initial designation of “organized transnational crime organizations”, among its first executive orders, he explained. The president was based on immigration laws and the Emergency and Economics Act (2001) to address the issue of the fight against terrorism.
“The US recognized that this is already a phenomenon that has exceeded the criminal-critical sphere- it is worth saying, its prosecution and its cuts- and needs to use all the resources at its disposal.”
He affirmed that it is already a decision of geopolitical and geostrategic nature. “The US already is certain that it is the greatest threat its strategic safety.”
Given this, he argued that the issue of public international law is “much more clear”, after the cases of Pearl Harbor and Japan, and does not see extraterritoriality problems when it comes to terrorism and threat to security.
“For me the argument of territoriality is a futile argument, taking refuge in sovereignty to claim that, is an absurd,” he said when referring to the accusations made by Venezuela and Mexico.
“Precedents we have had and we must frame them at the historical moment in which they have occurred, such as the invasion of Panama and the arrest of Manuel Noriega, among others,” he said.
