The march towards regime change in Venezuela

On Monday, the United States formally designated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his allies in government as members of a foreign terrorist organisation called Cartel de los Soles, a group that doesn't exist.

- Michelle Goldberg

"There's no such thing as the cartel," Phil Gunson, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said by phone from Venezuela's capital, Caracas, on Monday. Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, is a pejorative Venezuelan term for corrupt figures in the armed forces who take money from drug traffickers; the name is a reference to the sun insignia on their uniforms. It was coined more than 30 years ago, Mr Gunson said, as journalistic shorthand, "and it hung around as a kind of jokey label." It's as if President Donald Trump classified the "deep state" as a criminal gang.

Declaring this fake cartel a terrorist organisation could have real-world consequences. "I think it's intended to send the message to Mr Maduro that you are now considered a terrorist, and therefore, you might suffer the same fate as Osama bin Laden," Mr Gunson said. It's at once a threat and a rationale for a possible regime change operation, a military adventure that would be utterly preposterous but also looks increasingly likely.