Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro slammed the United States and President Trump after the Justice Department charged him with narcoterrorism.
The Justice Department announced on Thursday that Maduro and his co-conspirators were indicted for their alleged role in facilitating the global drug trade through Maduro’s own drug ring, dubbed the Cartel of the Sun. Maduro was also accused of allowing the Colombia-based terrorist group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, to operate freely in Venezuela’s border region with Colombia.
Maduro responded to the indictment by accusing the U.S. and Colombia of “giving orders to flood Venezuela with violence.” He also called Trump a “racist cowboy and warned that he’s ready to fight should the U.S. invade Venezuela, according to the Associated Press.
Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday that he expected the U.S. to “eventually” get Maduro into custody along with his co-conspirators. “We want these defendants captured so they can face justice in U.S. courts,” he said.
Barr said the Maduro regime allows FARC to use its airspace to fly the cocaine north to destinations in the United States and elsewhere in North America. In announcing the unsealing of indictments in federal court in South Florida and New York, the Justice Department said “we estimate that somewhere between 200 and 250 metric tons of cocaine are shipped out of Venezuela by these routes” and “those 250 metric tons equates to 30 million lethal doses.”
The U.S. and nearly 60 countries worldwide recognize Juan Guaido, the president of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly, as the legitimate leader of the country, not Maduro.
