U.S. sanctions three of Maduro's nephews, accusing them of drug trafficking.

Washington.- The United States imposed financial sanctions this Thursday on three nephews of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, whom it accuses of having ties to drug trafficking. The Treasury Department included Efraín Antonio Campo Flores, Francisco Flores de Freitas, and Carlos Erik Malpica Flores on the sanctions list, all of whom are related to Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores. The three are part of a battery of sanctions from the Donald Trump Administration that also affects the Venezuelan oil sector, including a businessman and six shipping companies, and blocking six ships. The Treasury Department pointed out in a statement that Campo Flores and Flores de Freitas, known as the "narco-nephews", were arrested in Haiti in 2015 for drug trafficking and sentenced in the United States in 2016. The previous Joe Biden Administration granted them a pardon in October 2022 as part of an exchange with the Nicolás Maduro Government and they returned to Venezuela, from where, according to Washington, they resumed drug trafficking activities in 2025.

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According to the Treasury, Malpica Flores, the third of the nephews, was vice president of the state oil company PDVSA and was sanctioned in 2017, but in 2022 the Biden Administration lifted the sanctions to facilitate an agreement with Maduro for the holding of democratic elections. Among the other sanctioned individuals is also Ramón Carretero Napolitano, a Panamanian businessman who, according to Washington, "has participated in lucrative contracts with the Maduro regime". Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that the sanctions serve to undo "the failed attempt by the Biden Administration to reach an agreement with Maduro that allowed his dictatorial control." The State Department pointed out in a statement that those sanctioned support "Maduro's corrupt and illegitimate regime in Venezuela." These sanctions are a new step in Trump's pressure strategy on Maduro, after having seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday and having destroyed numerous vessels in the Caribbean that, according to Washington, were part of a drug trafficking operation linked to the Venezuelan Government.