The U.S. government today indicted Venezuela’s communist dictator Nicolas Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials on charges of “narco-terrorism”. The indictment is the latest measure taken by the Trump administration to highlight the criminal character of Maduro’s regime.
The State Department has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
“As you will hear, the Department of Justice is announcing the unsealing of a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York against four defendants, including (Venezuelan President) Nicolas Maduro, as well as the current head of Venezuela’s constituent assembly, the former director of military intelligence and a former high ranking general for their involvement in narco-terrorism”, stated Attorney General William Barr.
Barr accused Maduro and his associates of conspiring with a dissident faction of the leftist Colombian guerrilla group FARC “to flood the United States with cocaine”.
“The indictment of Nicolas Maduro and his co-defendants alleges a conspiracy involving an extremely violent terrorist organization known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, and an effort to flood the United States with cocaine”, he added.
Following the Constitutional Crisis of 2017, when the National Parliament dominated by the opposition was stripped of legislative power, Maduro has ruled the country with dictatorial powers.