The arrest of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3 was an unprecedented aggression by the United States.
At the time, President Donald Trump called Maduro the “kingpin of a vast criminal network”—the Cartel of the Suns—and linked him to Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, which his government has labeled terrorist organizations.
This post is part of our annual Summer InSights series. See the full series here.
Maduro ran what we call “a hybrid state,” in which governance and crime became indistinguishable. Criminal groups became armed proxies for the state, crushing opposition and enforcing control in exchange for impunity. Corruption buried into state institutions—often mischaracterized as the Cartel of the Suns—used government as a private revenue generator.
But how has Maduro’s extraction impacted crime in Venezuela?
Less than one might think. The hybrid state remains mostly intact, despite some shuffling at the top by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who is trying to balance her regime’s interests with Trump’s. Rodríguez has cooperated with the US government against Tren de Aragua and sidelined some of Maduro’s inner circle. But it’s otherwise business as usual for corruption, drug trafficking, and illegal mining.
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Criminal Profiles
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Don’t miss the rest of the Summer InSights 2026 series
That concludes the second edition of Summer InSights 2026. If you’re interested in more on how specific groups in Venezuela’s underworld have been impacted by the country’s regime change, we’ll be offering a special collection of pieces for donors at the end of the Summer InSight series. In the meantime, stay tuned for the next two criminal trends in the series.
More into podcasts than long reads? Season 2 brings you stories from across Latin America that go beyond the headlines.