The two US senators from Florida presented the “Stop Maduro Act” (the law to stop Nicolás Maduro) to double the reward for the capture of the Chavista leader to 100 million dollars, in addition to the “BOLIVAR Act”, which would prohibit business with companies linked "to the regime".
The first initiative would double the offer of President Donald Trump's government, which in August already doubled to
50 million dollars the reward for Maduro's arrest, which exceeds the money offered by the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The proposal by Florida Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody indicates that the State Department "could pay such a reward to one or more individuals who provide information that directly leads to Maduro's arrest and any sentencing in any country for specific narcotics-related crimes".
The initiative would also require that any payment come from the liquidation of assets that Washington has confiscated from Maduro, his "regime" and accomplices, since the
Department of Justice confiscated more than $700 million in assets linked to the official leader, two private planes and nine vehicles.
Senator Moody, who presented the initiative at an event in Doral, a city in South Florida with the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the US. The US framed the proposal within the fight against the "narcoterrism" of the Government, which accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel of the Suns.
"Narcoterrorism is a war against our country, our children, and law and order. These terrorists smuggle overwhelming quantities of legal drugs into our country and sell this poison that destabilizes our communities", he argued at an event with city leaders.
On the other hand, Moody highlighted that the “BOLIVAR Act”, whose acronym in Spanish means "prohibit operations and contracts with the illegitimate Venezuelan authoritarian regime" would veto contracts by US Government agencies with companies that "do business with the Maduro regime".
The initiatives are also co-sponsored by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, all of whom are from the Republican Party.
These proposals come as the US military deployment in the Caribbean intensifies, where US authorities sank four vessels awarded to drug trafficking near the Venezuelan coast, leaving at least 17 dead.