The US has charged the Venezuelan president,
Nicolás Maduro, and 14 members of his inner circle with drug trafficking, “narco-terrorism”, corruption and money laundering, and offered a $15m reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture and prosecution.
Unveiling
the indictment, the attorney general, William Barr, said the Venezuelan leadership collaborated with a dissident faction of the former Colombian guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
Farc,
operating on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, which Barr described as an “extremely violent terrorist organization”.
“They’ve obtained the support of the Maduro regime, who is allowing them to use
Venezuela as a safe haven from which they can continue to conduct their cocaine trafficking and their armed insurgency,” Barr said.
Alongside Maduro, Venezuela’s vice-president for the economy, Venezuela’s defence minister, and the supreme court’s chief justice are among the list of 15 current and former officials who have been indicted.
The state department announced a reward of $15m for “information related to” Maduro, and $10m each for information on Diosdado Cabello, the head of the national constituent assembly, and three others:
Hugo Carvajal, former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence, Clíver Alcalá, a retired army major general, and Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah, the country’s industry minister.
