US indicts Maduro as virus crisis deepens

The US Justice Department has indicted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and 14 high-level associates for allegedly trafficking drugs, harboring Colombian militants and laundering money in the US financial system.

The move is the latest step in a US-led campaign to oust Maduro in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom Washington and more than 50 other Western nations have recognized as Venezuela's legitimate interim president since January 2019.

Maduro was indicted along with defense minister Vladimir Padrino, National Constituent Assembly president Diosdado Cabello, retired general and former head of military intelligence service Hugo Carvajal, former army major general Cliver Alcala, industry and national production minister Tareck El Aissami, former electricity minister Luis Motta, the former head of the National Guard and anti-drugs unit Nestor Reverol, among others.

Most if not all were already subject to targeted individual sanctions by the US, the EU and Canada. The US is now offering $15mn for information leading to Maduro's capture, and $10mn for other key figures.

Notably excluded from the indictment roster are executive vice president Delcy Rodriguez and her brother, communications minister Jorge Rodriguez, as well as foreign minister Jorge Arreaza. The trio are key members of Maduro's inner circle.

The legal offensive against Maduro and his associates is reminiscent of the 1988 indictments of late Panamanian president Manuel Noriega. The US invaded Panama a year later, capturing Noriega, who was tried, convicted and imprisoned in the US. He died in 2017.

Pandemic and sanctions

The legal offensive comes amid a global pandemic that is driving calls for the US to ease sanctions on Venezuela and facilitate cooperation with the Maduro government to help the country combat the spread of the new coronavirus.

The US has had financial sanctions on Venezuela since 2017, and oil sanctions since January 2019, after Guaido declared his interim presidency. The sanctions have accelerated the decline of Venezuela's national oil industry, which in turn has contributed to an acute fuel shortage, impeding food and aid distribution. Looting has broken out in several cities.

Following years of failed social programs, Venezuela is considered abjectly ill-equipped to cope with the rapidly spreading coronavirus. But the new indictments suggest that the White House is not considering a sanctions pause for collective virus action, and remains committed to removing Maduro to make way for elections.

In unveiling the indictments today, US attorney general William Barr said the best way to help Venezuelans is to remove the government that has betrayed them. Regarding a possible designation of Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, Barr said the US would take "one step at a time."

With US support, Guaido is maneuvering to funnel in aid from international organizations, independent of government institutions controlled by Maduro. But aid groups have been reluctant to participate with Guaido in the past, for fear of politicizing desperately needed food and medicine.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres is calling for sanctions waivers for Venezuela, Iran and other countries to help their governments better cope with the coronavirus pandemic. "This is the time for solidarity not exclusion," Guterres wrote in a 23 March letter to G20 member countries.

Members of Guaido's coalition and allies of Colombia's conservative government, including former president Andres Pastrana, are urging the parties to set aside their political difference and jointly engage to confront the virus threat.

Colombia has long accused Venezuela of harboring anti-government rebels, especially dissidents of the former Farc militant group that repudiated a 2016 peace deal with the government last year.

Maduro routinely decries US policy as a war aimed at taking over the country's natural resources, and today he accused the US and Colombia of conspiring to destabilize Venezuela. "As head of state I am obliged to defend the country's peace and stability, under any circumstances," Maduro said on Twitter.

Communications minister Rodriguez accused Bogota and Washington of planning to assassinate Venezuela's leaders.

By Patricia Garip