Nicolás Maduro: what the documents say

01

The "Cartel de los Soles" nearly vanishes from the indictment

In the 2020 indictment, Maduro, Cabello, Carvajal and Clíver Alcalá "acted as leaders and managers of the Cartel de Los Soles": the phrase appears 32 times. In the January 2026 version it appears twice, and no longer as an organization they run but as the name given to a system of favors among officials.

“a patronage system run by those at the top—referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns”

Source: S4 superseding indictment, January 2026 · New York (25 pages)

02

From Colombian guerrillas to Mexican cartels

The 2020 indictment was built around the FARC (57 mentions). The 2026 one names them 27 times and adds partners that were not there before: the Sinaloa Cartel (14), the Zetas (13), the ELN (11) and Tren de Aragua, whose leader, Héctor "Niño" Guerrero, becomes a defendant in the same case. Mexico goes from 7 mentions to 19.

Source: S4 superseding indictment, January 2026 · New York (25 pages)

03

The family comes in

Cilia Flores and Nicolás Maduro Guerra, "Nicolasito", were not in the 2020 indictment. In 2026 they are defendants: she appears 26 times and he 30. The indictment says drug trafficking concentrated power and wealth "in the hands of Maduro Moros's family".

Source: S4 superseding indictment, January 2026 · New York (25 pages)

04

The foreign minister and the passports

The word "diplomatic" was not in the 2020 indictment. In 2026 it appears 8 times, mostly about his years as foreign minister:

“As Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs, MADURO MOROS provided Venezuelan diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and facilitated diplomatic cover for planes used by money launderers to repatriate drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela.”

Source: S4 superseding indictment, January 2026 · New York (25 pages)

05

More drugs, more pages

The 2026 indictment runs about 7,200 words against 5,500 in 2020. "Cocaine" goes from 40 mentions to 67 and "tons" from 4 to 14. It opens like this:

“For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.”

Source: S4 superseding indictment, January 2026 · New York (25 pages)

ON TV

Meanwhile, on Con el Mazo Dando

«Eso no puede ser sorpresa para nosotros porque nosotros sabemos que no existe. Sabemos que es una gran mentira.»Diosdado Cabello on his TV show Con el Mazo Dando (January 22, 2026), about the "Cartel de los Soles", three weeks after the new indictment was made public. Our translation: "That can't surprise us, because we know it doesn't exist. We know it is a big lie." · watch