The latest news on Venezuela and the United States. Donald Trump has doubled the reward offered by the United States for information leading to the capture, or actual capture, of Venezuela's current President Nicolás Maduro. US Attorney General Pam Bondi has already offered a $25 million reward for Maduro's capture, as well as other significant rewards for key members of his cabinet, in January. He accuses the current leader of the Latin American country of drug trafficking, narco-terrorism, corruption, and collaboration with a terrorist organisation, in the latter case with Colombia's FARC, and has now decided to raise the amount on his head to $50 million, according to the BBC.
The Justice Department accuses Maduro's government of also collaborating with the Venezuelan-born Tren de Aragua gang, recently listed as a terrorist organisation (many of whose members have been sent to El Salvador's prison Cecot), and also with the Sinaloa Cartel to "use cocaine as a weapon and flood the United States with it".
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil called Maduro's announcement of the new bounty pathetic and accused the Trump administration of creating a smoke screen at Maduro's expense to cover up the media scandal over the alleged appearance of President Trump's name in the Epstein papers. "We are not surprised, coming from whoever it comes from".
Maduro succeeded Hugo Chávez in the government of Venezuela in 2013 and has had a continuist policy for the country based on Bolivarian socialism. The last elections in the country (which revalidated Maduro in power for another 6 years) were accused of being rigged by a large majority of the international community. Its relations with the US have never been good; Venezuela is also one of the world's main oil-producing countries.