Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly defended Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who has been formally accused by the U.S. government of being the leader of the narco-terrorist organization Cartel De Los Soles and has a $50 million reward offered for his capture.
During her morning conference, Sheinbaum claimed that her government has no open investigations on Maduro, tying him to any cartels in Mexico, and that if the U.S. government has any, they must show the evidence for their accusations.
“As we always have said, if they have any proof, then they must show it,” she said. “We have no proof related to that.”
The issue comes after Breitbart Texas reported that the U.S. government announced they were designating Cartel De Los Soles as a specially designated global terrorist and named Maduro as their leader. Cartel De Los Soles is allegedly run by top government and military officials from Venezuela. The U.S government also claimed that Maduro and his cartel were providing support to the Sinaloa Cartel. This Mexican criminal organization was named as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.
The U.S. first announced a reward for Maduro in 2020 following the unsealing of a criminal indictment accusing him of drug trafficking. Following the new terrorist designation, the government has since increased the pressure and has sought to impose new financial sanctions on Maduro and his associates. This week, the U.S. government also announced that they were raising the $25 million reward for Maduro to $50 million, Breitbart News’ Christian Caruzo reported.
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When asked about the Venezuela-Sinaloa Cartel connection, Sheinbaum said her government has no information to back up those claims and that Maduro was not under investigation in her country.
In 2021, Maduro traveled to Mexico and met with various officials, including Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, even while he was being sought by the U.S. government and had a $15 million bounty on him. At the time, Mexico’s government refused to arrest Maduro and had even announced that he was a welcome guest in that country.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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