Trump administration officials seeking to remove Nicolás Maduro as the leader of Venezuela have been citing a federal indictment returned half a decade ago in Manhattan as one justification.
The indictment, by a grand jury in March 2020 during President Trump’s first term, charges Mr. Maduro in a decades-long narco-terrorism and international cocaine trafficking conspiracy, and accuses him of overseeing a violent drug cartel as he rose to lead the South American nation. The United States is offering a $50 million reward for his capture.
The United States does not recognize Mr. Maduro as Venezuela’s president, but the decision to indict a putative head of state was unusual, representing an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure Mr. Maduro to leave office.
Now, with the charges still pending, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, has repeatedly mentioned the 2020 indictment and called Mr. Maduro a “fugitive from American justice,” seemingly opening the door further to efforts by the United States to oust Mr. Maduro and seize him as it would any criminal on the run from the law.
Venezuela, once a wealthy petrostate, has devolved into chaos since the socialist Hugo Chávez become president in 1998; Mr. Maduro succeeded him in 2013. For the Trump administration, the nation is of keen interest. Its socialist leadership presents an attractive ideological target, and the nation has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, though its nationalized industry is moribund.
Recently, the U.S. military launched lethal attacks on civilian vessels in the Caribbean Sea that the administration said were smuggling drugs for Venezuelan gangs, and the military has also been planning operations against suspected traffickers inside Venezuela itself, The New York Times reported this week.
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The post Why Nicolás Maduro Faces Criminal Charges in the U.S. appeared first on New York Times.
