The United States has been pursuing the arrest of the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for over half a decade now and has offered a huge bounty prize for his capture.
Maduro was indicted by a US court in March 2020, accused alongside more than a dozen other individuals of narco-terrorism.
The federal prosecutors also charged that Maduro and some of his top government officials collaborated with the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in smuggling cocaine and firearms into the U.S.
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The US Justice Department also accused Maduro of heading a criminal network known as Cártel de Los Soles. The Trump administration called the group a foreign terrorist organisation last year.
Now, several argue that Cártel de Los Soles is not a centrally organised cartel, but rather a loosely defined network of corrupt officials linked to drug trafficking.
How much bounty on Maduro?
Last summer, the Trump administration doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro's capture. The bounty now stands at $50 million, one of the highest sums ever offered by the US government for a foreign leader.
On Saturday, following POTUS’ Truth Social post, claiming that the US “captured and flown out of the Country” Maduro, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez demanded clarity.
Speaking on Venezuela’s state-run television in a telephone interview, Rodríguez demanded proof of life and information on the president’s whereabouts.
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Meanwhile, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said early Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had briefed him by phone and was told that Maduro had been arrested “to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States,” adding that “the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.”
