WASHINGTON, Nov 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The United States plans to classify a cartel that it says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro runs as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday, as tensions soar between the two countries.

"Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe," Rubio said in a statement.

The designation follows a huge US military buildup in the Caribbean which Washington states is necessary to prevent drug smuggling into the United States.

But Caracas claims it is really a ploy to overthrow its leftist president Maduro, who Washington considers an illegitimate leader and a drug lord -- a charge that he denies.

Rubio reiterated an established US claim Sunday that the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) is headed by Maduro and other high-ranking officials "who have corrupted Venezuela's military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary."

"Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela's legitimate government," he added.

Rubio also said the United States "will continue using all available tools to protect our national security interests and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists."

Since launching the anti-trafficking military campaign in September, US forces have killed at least 83 people accused of ferrying drugs in international waters, according to an AFP tally of publicly released figures.

The United States has released no details to back up its claims that the people targeted -- in both the Caribbean and eastern Pacific -- in the more than 20 strikes were actually traffickers.

Experts say the deaths amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers.