Reshuffled or Reformed? Venezuela’s Criminal Order After Maduro

The arrest of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3 was an unprecedented aggression by the United States.  At the time, President Donald Trump called Maduro the “kingpin of a vast criminal network”—the Cartel of the Suns—and linked him to Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, which his government has labeled terrorist organizations. 

Maduro ran what we call “a hybrid state,” in which governance and crime became indistinguishable. Criminal groups became armed proxies for the state, crushing opposition and enforcing control in exchange for impunity. Corruption buried into state institutions—often mischaracterized as the Cartel of the Suns—used government as a private revenue generator. 

But how has Maduro’s extraction impacted crime in Venezuela? 

Less than one might think. The hybrid state remains mostly intact, despite some shuffling at the top by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who is trying to balance her regime’s interests with Trump’s. Rodríguez has cooperated with the US government against Tren de Aragua and sidelined some of Maduro’s inner circle. But it’s otherwise business as usual for corruption, drug trafficking, and illegal mining.

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