Trump Administration Offers $50M Bounty For Capture Of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro

The Trump administration has offered a $50 million reward for any information leading to the arrest and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is widely described as a dictator.

In a video on social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi described Maduro as “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.”

“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like TDA [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa, and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” she claimed.

“To date, the DEA has seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, with nearly seven tons linked to Maduro himself, which represents a primary source of income for the deadly cartels based in Venezuela and Mexico.

“Cocaine is often laced with fentanyl, resulting in the loss and destruction of countless American lives.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has seized over $700 million of assets linked to Maduro, including two private jets and nine vehicles.

But despite this, Bondi said, “Maduro’s reign of terror continues.”

During Trump’s first presidency, his administration offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture after he was indicted on several federal charges in a New York court in 2020.

Those charges included narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S., and using and carrying machine guns and destructive devices.

The Biden administration upped the reward to $25 million on January 10, and the State Department and DOJ have now doubled this to $50 million.

Maduro ran for a third time and claimed victory in Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential election, but did not release documentation to substantiate his claim.

Several nations, including the U.S. and the European Parliament, rejected it and issued statements declaring that they would recognize opposition candidate Edmundo González as the president.

González was forced to flee the country after Maduro issued a warrant for his arrest.

While Trump immediately issued a reward for his arrest after the 2020 indictment, his issues with Maduro began even before then.

At the 2018 United Nations General Assembly, tensions between the pair were evident. Trump used his speech to condemn Maduro’s leadership, calling his government corrupt and brutal, and blaming it for causing a humanitarian crisis that forced millions of Venezuelans to flee.

In response, Maduro dismissed Trump’s remarks as lies and “imperial” aggression.

He even accused the U.S. of trying to assassinate him by orchestrating a drone attack. However, a dissident member of the Venezuelan army later claimed responsibility for this, and the U.S. denied any involvement.

Maduro also claimed that the U.S. was trying to overthrow him to control Venezuela’s oil.

While their ire and Trump’s ensuing sanctions played out in public, Wired last year revealed a secret CIA initiative in 2019 to overthrow Maduro.

It reported that the CIA successfully hacked into Venezuela’s military payroll system to sow distrust and encourage military defections to support opposition figure Juan Guaidó.

The initiative reportedly sparked intense internal debates, with the CIA hesitant but complying with White House directives to pursue regime change.

Guaidó declared himself interim president in early 2019 and received recognition from the U.S., but ultimately, Maduro continued to govern.

The Trump administration increased pressure through harsh economic sanctions and asset freezes targeting Venezuela’s oil sector.

Former U.S. officials told Wired that it was around this time that Trump turned to the CIA for help in ousting Maduro.

As well as hacking the payroll, the CIA reportedly led a covert campaign to spread pro-democracy content in Venezuela. Officials told Wired that it was “embarrassing” and “purely lazy.”

While efforts to overthrow Maduro failed, Trump in 2023 appeared to discuss his plans for what would have happened if that attempt had been successful.

“We’re buying oil from Venezuela,” he said during a speech at a North Carolina Republican Party convention. “When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over, we would have gotten all that oil.

“It would have been right next door. But now we’re buying oil from Venezuela, so we’re making a dictator very rich, can you believe this?”

Venezuela holds one of the largest crude oil reserves in the world.