The United States has eased sanctions on the Venezuelan government to allow it to pay for Nicolás Maduro’s legal defense in a U.S. narcoterrorism case, a shift that comes as a former top intelligence insider signals he may cooperate with prosecutors, potentially reshaping one of the most consequential foreign corruption cases in recent years.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued amended licenses authorizing lawyers representing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to receive payments from the Venezuelan government under strict conditions, according to a court document made public Friday.
The licenses allow payments only from funds available to the Venezuelan government after March 5, 2026, and prohibit the use of certain restricted accounts, marking a shift from earlier U.S. efforts to block access to those resources on national security and foreign policy grounds.
The move follows arguments from Maduro’s defense team, led by attorney Barry Pollack, that restrictions on payments violated the Sixth Amendment right to counsel by preventing him from choosing his legal representation.
During a March 26 hearing in federal court in New York, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein questioned the government’s reliance on national security grounds to justify those restrictions, noting that, following their capture, neither Maduro nor Flores appeared to pose an ongoing threat.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, were detained on Jan. 3 in Caracas in a U.S. military operation and transferred to a federal detention facility in Brooklyn. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism and cocaine importation. A trial is not expected to begin for at least one to two years.
As the case moves forward, attention has turned to Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, Venezuela’s former military intelligence chief, who could emerge as a key witness for the prosecution.
Carvajal, once one of the most powerful figures in Venezuela’s intelligence apparatus, pleaded guilty in 2025 to U.S. narcotics and narcoterrorism charges as part of a deal that left open the possibility of cooperation with authorities.
In a letter sent to President Donald Trump, according to a CNN report published over the weekend, Carvajal offered to provide information about alleged criminal activities within the Venezuelan state, saying he sought to “atone” for past actions and help the United States “protect itself from dangers” he witnessed over years in government.
Carvajal’s outreach builds on a December 2025 letter he sent from federal prison in which he described what he alleged was a state-run criminal apparatus embedded within Venezuela’s leadership.
In that letter, the former spy chief alleged that the Venezuelan state evolved into a narcotics trafficking enterprise under Hugo Chávez, centered on the so-called “Cartel de los Soles,” a network of military-linked officials long accused by U.S. authorities of coordinating large-scale cocaine shipments abroad.
He claimed the movement of drugs into the United States was not the result of isolated corruption but a deliberate policy, asserting that trafficking routes were designed to “weaponize” narcotics—an allegation that echoes longstanding U.S. charges but has been consistently denied by Caracas.
Carvajal also claimed that Venezuelan authorities empowered criminal groups such as the Tren de Aragua gang and facilitated their expansion beyond the country’s borders, including into the United States, describing them as part of a broader system of informal enforcement and illicit revenue generation.
Beyond drug trafficking, he outlined what he described as extensive intelligence cooperation between Venezuela and nations including Cuba and Russia, and claimed that espionage networks linked to Caracas had operated inside the United States for years—assertions that U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed.
Those claims broadly align with elements of the charges Maduro now faces in federal court, including allegations of coordinating drug trafficking networks and working with criminal organizations. Maduro has repeatedly denied involvement in narcotics operations.
The U.S. Department of Justice has not publicly confirmed whether Carvajal is cooperating. However, legal experts say recent developments suggest that negotiations may be under way behind the scenes.
A sentencing hearing for Carvajal was postponed last week without a new date, a move that could indicate cooperation discussions. Carvajal also no longer appears in the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate database, though he remains in federal custody—another potential signal, experts say.
Neither Carvajal’s legal team nor the Justice Department has commented on his current status.
Carvajal’s potential cooperation could prove pivotal. For years, U.S. authorities have struggled to penetrate what they describe as a deeply entrenched system in which elements of the Venezuelan state, including parts of the military and intelligence services, were allegedly repurposed to facilitate illicit activities.
With decades of access to senior leadership under both Chávez and Maduro, Carvajal is seen by investigators as a rare insider capable of providing detailed accounts of how those networks operated and evolved.
Still, analysts caution that his claims will need to be independently corroborated. Carvajal has a history of shifting allegiances, having broken with Maduro in 2019 before being arrested in Spain and later extradited to the United States.
©2026 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
