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The Unit­ed States De­part­ment of State says it will des­ig­nate Car­tel de los Soles as a For­eign Ter­ror­ist Or­gan­i­sa­tion, with the des­ig­na­tion tak­ing ef­fect on 24 No­vem­ber.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the group is based in Venezuela and is head­ed by Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro and oth­er high-rank­ing fig­ures “of the il­le­git­i­mate Maduro regime” who, it says, have cor­rupt­ed the coun­try’s mil­i­tary, in­tel­li­gence, leg­is­la­ture, and ju­di­cia­ry.

The De­part­ment said nei­ther Maduro nor his as­so­ciates rep­re­sent Venezuela’s le­git­i­mate gov­ern­ment. It added that Car­tel de los Soles, work­ing along­side oth­er des­ig­nat­ed ter­ror­ist or­gan­i­sa­tions in­clud­ing Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Car­tel, is re­spon­si­ble for ter­ror­ist vi­o­lence across the re­gion and for traf­fick­ing drugs in­to the Unit­ed States and Eu­rope.