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The United States has doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million, intensifying its long-standing accusations against him for drug trafficking.
The move, announced on Thursday, was swiftly dismissed by Venezuelan officials as “pathetic” and “ridiculous.”
In a video statement shared on social media, US Attorney General Pam Bondi described Maduro as “one of the world’s biggest narco-traffickers” and a threat to American national security.
She confirmed that both the Department of Justice and the State Department are now offering a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s capture, up from the $25 million previously announced in January.
Washington has refused to recognise Maduro’s last two election victories, claiming both were marred by fraud.
US prosecutors first charged Maduro in 2020 with leading a massive cocaine smuggling operation, dubbed the “Cartel of the Suns,” allegedly responsible for sending hundreds of tonnes of narcotics into the US over two decades in collaboration with the Colombian rebel group FARC.
Bondi said Maduro’s operations also involved the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
She claimed US authorities had seized 30 tonnes of cocaine linked to Maduro, including nearly seven tonnes tied directly to him, and more than $700 million in assets since September last year.
Responding to the announcement, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil slammed the reward as a “crude propaganda stunt” and reaffirmed that the country’s dignity “is not for sale.”
In a further development, former Venezuelan intelligence chief Hugo Armando Carvajal recently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in the US and has reportedly offered evidence implicating Maduro.
Tensions between the US and Venezuela remain high. Washington has not recognised Maduro’s presidency since the contested 2018 election, which it labelled “deeply flawed.” It also rejected his self-declared victory in the July 2024 presidential election, accusing him of fraud.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello claimed that a bomb plot in a commercial area of Caracas had been foiled, blaming the attempted attack on US-backed opposition forces—a familiar accusation from the Maduro administration amid its ongoing feud with Washington.
