The United States will designate Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on Nov. 24, a dramatic escalation in Washington’s confrontation with strongman Nicolás Maduro and his closest allies.

The move is being widely read in Venezuelan political circles as an ultimatum: a final window for Maduro to negotiate his exit or face what many see as the most serious U.S. threat to his rule to date, as the U.S. deploys the largest concentration of military assets in the Caribbean in decades.

In a statement late Sunday, the State Department said the cartel — which the U.S. says is headed by Maduro and top figures of his “illegitimate regime” — has penetrated Venezuela’s military, intelligence services, legislature and courts while partnering with other terrorist-designated groups, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

U.S. officials say the network fuels hemispheric violence, channels cocaine into the United States and Europe and finances the Venezuelan government’s repressive apparatus. The designation would effectively label Maduro and senior officials, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, as terrorists.

“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government,” the State Department said, adding that Washington will continue using “all available tools” to cut off funding to what it called “narco-terrorists.”

The pending designation marks the Trump administration’s most aggressive step yet as it weighs whether to use military force inside Venezuela — an option openly discussed by several lawmakers and former officials.

Miami U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez applauded the decision on social media, saying the label allows the United States to “attack them militarily within the U.S. legal framework,” and adding, “Later they can’t say they weren’t warned.”

On Friday, President Donald Trump said he had already decided on his “next steps” toward Venezuela, offering his clearest indication to date that Washington is preparing new military actions against the Maduro government as the Pentagon ramps up its regional deployments.

“I sort of made up my mind,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One for Florida. Pressed for details, he declined to elaborate: “I can’t say what it will be.”

The comments came less than an hour after The Washington Post reported that Trump met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and senior Pentagon officials earlier that day. Discussions centered on “a series of options” for advancing the administration’s Venezuela strategy, according to the report.

U.S. accusations against Maduro intensified in August, when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the reward for his capture to $50 million and called him “one of the world’s biggest drug traffickers.” Bondi said Maduro leads the Soles cartel and collaborates with criminal groups including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa cartel.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has surged unprecedented firepower into the region. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, entered the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility last week, expanding what officials describe as the biggest American military presence in the Caribbean in decades.

Under what the Pentagon has labeled Operation Southern Spear, an estimated 15,000 to 16,000 personnel are operating near Venezuela. Washington describes the operation as a counter-narcotics mission; Caracas says it is a prelude to regime change and has ordered a nationwide military mobilization.

The Ford Carrier Strike Group includes seven Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and two guided-missile cruisers. A powerful amphibious force — the USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio and USS Fort Lauderdale — is carrying roughly 4,500 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. Live-fire drills near Venezuelan waters, the deployment of the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, Coast Guard cutters, F-35Bs, MQ-9 Reapers, CH-53 helicopters, P-8 Poseidons and the special-operations vessel MV Ocean Trader underscore U.S. readiness.

The terrorist designation criminalizes nearly all forms of material support to the Soles cartel, expands surveillance authorities and allows the Treasury Department to freeze assets and cut off international financing. Treasury first sanctioned alleged Soles members in 2019, but the new designation dramatically broadens U.S. legal reach.

A former U.S. official familiar with the legal procedures surrounding the designation called the move “very significant” and “not window dressing,” saying it opens channels for “financial war and other kinds of war” across multiple agencies. While not a direct green light for a military intervention, the designation allows intelligence operations that can “look very much like military action,” including capture missions or possible strikes on leadership targets — tactics once used against al-Qaida.

Antonio De La Cruz, executive director of the Washington-based Inter American Trends, said the designation could set the stage for an even harsher step: placing the entire Maduro regime on the U.S. list of Global Terrorist Organizations.

He compared Washington’s messaging to the final warnings issued to Saddam Hussein in 2003.

According to De La Cruz, Maduro faces dwindling options. “Either you turn yourself in or you leave,” he said, adding that exile — potentially in Russia — could be negotiated. He described internal administration dynamics as a split between Trump, who leans toward negotiation, and hawks such as Sen. Marco Rubio, who he said will push for a full and immediate political transition.

De La Cruz called the current U.S. posture “the last opportunity” for Maduro to avoid more severe consequences, including potential military action. While Washington has issued no formal ultimatum, he pointed to Trump’s recent comments about being willing to “listen to terms of surrender” as a sign the United States is preparing for a decisive confrontation.

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