On the same day that U.S. forces invaded Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro, the Justice Department published a federal indictment that supposedly justified the operation. Like the 2020 indictment that federal prosecutors obtained during President Donald Trump's first term, the revised version charges the former Venezuelan dictator with participating in conspiracies involving "narco-terrorism," cocaine trafficking, and machine gun possession. But there is a notable difference that highlights the slipperiness of Trump's attempts to justify legally dubious policies, including summary deportation of alleged gang members and his deadly military campaign against suspected drug boats, by describing his targets as "foreign terrorist organizations" (FTOs).
The 2020 indictment places Maduro at the center of "the Venezuelan Cártel de los Soles," which it describes as a "drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials who abused the Venezuelan people and corrupted the legitimate institutions of Venezuela—including parts of the military, intelligence apparatus, legislature, and the judiciary—to facilitate the importation of tons of cocaine into the United States." That "drug-trafficking organization," the indictment says, "participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy" with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla group that relies on the cocaine trade for funding.
