This Is the Top Venezuelan Official at the Top of the…

This Is the Top Venezuelan Official at the Top of the U.S. Most Wanted List After El Mencho's Death

Venezuela's Minister of Interior Relations, Justice, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello (Credit: Photo by JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's interior minister and a senior ruling-party figure, is now the highest-priority target on the U.S. reward list following the recent death of Mexican cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," and the arrest of Nicolás Maduro in January.

Washington is offering $25 million for information leading to Cabello's arrest, placing him among the most wanted figures on U.S. reward lists along with Indian narcoterrorist Dawood Ibrahim, who has been linked to Al Qaeda and is considered the main figure responsible for the 1993 Bombay bombings that left 157 dead.

Cabello was indicted in March 2020 in a federal court in New York on charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses linked to drug trafficking. U.S. investigators allege he "participated in a corrupt and violent narcoterrorism conspiracy" involving Venezuela's Cartel de los Soles and Colombia's FARC.

He is also accused of interfering in narcotics investigations and helping provide military-grade weapons to FARC.

The renewed attention on Cabello follows the death of Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, over the weekend after being captured during a Mexican military operation. His death triggered retaliatory attacks across multiple Mexican states, including road blockades, arson, and assaults on businesses.

Cabello remains a central figure inside Venezuela's current power structure, led by Delcy Rodríguez, which complicates any effort to detain him given the Trump administration's engagement with interim authorities.

Cabello has publicly rejected claims that political shifts in Venezuela have weakened the ruling movement saying in late January that Chavismo is "the only guarantee of peace in this country," and dismissing reports of internal divisions as attempts to "manipulate the truth." He also described Maduro and his wife as having been "kidnapped" during the U.S. operation that led to their detention.

U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said last week that Cabello should face prosecution in the United States, questioning why the Trump administration has allowed him to roam free. "I don't understand why we haven't arrested that person," said Gimenez, adding that if he had authority he would ask Venezuelan leaders to "hand that person over to American justice."

Reward for Diosdado Cabello (Credit: State Department)

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