New York, Jan. 6 (LaPresse) – The United States Department of Justice has dropped the charge against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that he was the head of a drug cartel called the “Cartel de los Soles.” The charge had been promoted last year by the Trump administration to lay the groundwork for his removal from power in Venezuela. Prosecutors still accused Maduro of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy, but they abandoned the claim that the Cartel de los Soles was a true cartel. The revised indictment instead describes it as a “clientelist system” and a “culture of corruption” fueled by drug money. This is reported by the New York Times.
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