US indicts Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro for ‘narco-terrorism’, offers US$15 million reward
- US attorney general accuses president and associates of conspiring to ‘flood United States with cocaine’
- More than dozen top Venezuelan officials also face charges in latest escalation of Trump administration’s pressure campaign
The US government on Thursday indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of “narco-terrorism”, the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.
The State Department offered a reward of up to US$15 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Maduro, whose country has been convulsed by years of a deep economic crisis and political upheaval.
The indictment, a rare US action against a sitting foreign head of state, marks a serious new phase against Maduro by Washington at a time when some US officials have privately said President Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with the results of his Venezuela policy.
Attorney General William Barr, announcing the charges, accused Maduro and his associates of conspiring with a dissident faction of the leftist Colombian guerilla group FARC “to flood the United States with cocaine”.
“While the Venezuelan people suffer, this cabal … lines their pockets,” Barr said of Maduro and the more than a dozen others who were indicted.