Cartel de los Soles como rótulo penal

This article examines, through a critical criminology lens, how the “Cartel de Los Soles” category takes shape and circulates in U.S. official documents related to the indictment of Nicolás Maduro. The study uses a qualitative, document-based design and a primary corpus of eight items, including judicial filings, press materials, sanctions, and official acts issued by the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, and the Southern District of New York. News coverage forms a supplementary block selected through criteria of traceability, source attribution, and editorial accountability, allowing the study to follow the public circulation of the label and its controversies. The comparison reveals an important contrast: sanctions and designations gave the label strong political-administrative density in 2025, while the 2026 indictment links the expression to a patronage system in wording that differs from the 2020 filing. From this contrast, the article discusses the label as a symbolic condenser of complex illicit phenomena while keeping documentary evidence distinct from hypotheses about political uses. For Brazil, the study recommends caution when importing security labels and emphasizes evidence, transparency, and democratic oversight in international cooperation.