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Is Cartel de los Soles Real?
Recent allegations of Venezuelan leaders running a drug cartel have been in the making for years; however, hard evidence is scant
Discussions are being had about a supposed drug cartel you likely never heard of until it was recently put out there by Donald Trump. It’s called the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), and yes, it does exist, but it’s not what the White House is claiming it is. The administration is simply echoing a largely baseless story that has been building for more than two decades, much of it hinging on speculation.
A recent report from InSight Crime discusses the cartel. While InSight Crime has a long history of reports on the group, the reporting is based on postulations that draw on loose conclusions and pass them off as evidence. One can infer the outlet’s bias by its funding, which comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, the British Embassy in Colombia, and many other Western institutions linked to governments.
Some of what has been reported in the past is true. However, finding facts amid so much propaganda can be difficult. Recently, the former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNODC, the UN’s anti-drug and anti-crime program, Pino…
