Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hammering Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Sunday as the South American country holds municipal elections to fill hundreds of mayoral positions and thousands of council seats.

The municipal contests are happening one day before the one-year anniversary of Venezuela’s presidential election, which was widely condemned by the United States and other international observers as illegitimate. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has been escalating pressure against Maduro in recent days, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday accused the foreign head of state of being the leader of an entity aiding terrorism against the U.S. 

«One year since dictator Nicolás Maduro defied the will of the Venezuelan people by baselessly declaring himself the winner, the United States remains firm in its unwavering support to Venezuela’s restoration of democratic order and justice,» Rubio said in a statement on Sunday. «Maduro is not the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government.»

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«Maduro is the leader of the designated narco-terrorist organization Cartel de Los Soles, and he is responsible for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe,» Rubio continued. «Maduro, currently indicted by our nation, has corrupted Venezuela’s institutions to assist the cartel’s criminal narco-trafficking scheme into the United States.»

The Justice Department charged Maduro and 14 other former and current Venezuelan officials with narco-terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking and other criminal charges in March 2020. At the start of this year, 10 days before President Donald Trump returned to office, the State Department increased its reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture from $15 million to up to $25 million. 

«For years, Maduro and his cronies have manipulated Venezuela’s electoral system to maintain their illegitimate grip on power,» Rubio added on Sunday. «By scheduling the municipal elections on the eve of the anniversary of the stolen July 28 presidential election, the regime once again aims to deploy the military and police to suppress the will of the Venezuelan people.»

«The United States will continue working with our partners to hold accountable the corrupt, criminal and illegitimate Maduro regime. Those who steal elections and use force to grasp power undermine America’s national security interests,» Rubio said. 

Maduro became the Venezuelan president in 2013, but the U.S. has not recognized his presidency since 2019. The U.S. and other countries have refused to recognize Maduro as the winner of the July 2024 Venezuelan election, citing widespread fraud. 

A relative of people detained during protests following the disputed July 28, 2024, presidential elections takes part in a vigil demanding their release in front of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Caracas on July 16, 2025.  (FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via Getty Images)

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The Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles, also known as Cartel of the Suns, as a «Specially Designated Global Terrorist.» The U.S. alleges that Cartel de los Soles is headed by Maduro and other Venezuelan high-ranking individuals in his regime «who corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela, including parts of the military, intelligence apparatus, legislature, and the judiciary, to assist the cartel’s endeavors of trafficking narcotics into the United States.» 

The U.S. claims the Venezuela-based group provides material support to Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel. The Trump administration classified Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel as foreign terrorist organizations in February. 

According to the Treasury Department, the name Cartel de los Soles is derived from the sun insignias often portrayed on the uniforms of Venezuelan military officials. 

The mayor of the Chacao municipality, Gustavo Duque, speaks to supporters at the start of the election campaign for the municipal elections in Caracas on July 11, 2025. Elections for mayors and councilors will be held on July 27.  (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

The cartel «supports Tren de Aragua in carrying out its objective of using the flood of illegal narcotics as a weapon against the United States,» according to the Treasury Department. 

Bessent said on Friday that the new action «exposes the illegitimate Maduro regime’s facilitation of narco-terrorism through terrorist groups like Cartel de los Soles.»

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«The Treasury Department will continue to execute on President Trump’s pledge to put America First by cracking down on violent organizations including Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and their facilitators, like Cartel de los Soles,» he added. 

Japanese populist Sohei Kamiya stunned many in the country when his Sanseitō party won 14 seats in Japan’s Upper House elections last week.

«From supermarket manager to bright political star … populism has hit the shores of Japan like a tsunami,» Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital about 47-year-old Kamiya’s surprise achievement. 

Holding 15 of 248 Upper House seats is not sufficient for Kamiya’s party to submit legislation. However, polling data shows Sanseitō’s impact with younger voters, as Kyodo News reported that more than 20% of voters from 18 to 40 voted for his party.

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Inspired by President Donald Trump’s leadership style, Kamiya’s rise has largely been attributed to his social media savvy. He snagged his earliest followers through his opposition to «blanket mask mandates, mass PCR testing, and vaccine requirements» during the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan Forward reported.

Kamiya has also adopted a spin-off of Trump’s MAGA motto, proclaiming «Japanese first» as his party promises to strengthen Japan’s culture, birth rates and food sufficiency, while finding solutions for its reliance on immigration. 

Though the Western media has characterized Kamiya as far-right, fringe or xenophobic, Lance Gatling, a principal at Nexial Research, Tokyo, told Fox News Digital that while Kamiya’s goals of «protecting Japan, growing Japan, and educating Japan» are «fairly populist,» they do not represent «a radical move towards the right wing.» 

In fact, Gatling said many in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has dominated Japanese politics for decades, «are more right-wing than Sanseitō.» Gatling described members of Kamiya’s party as «pretty reasonable.» 

Gaitlin said that Kamiya, formerly a reservist in the Self-Defense Forces and an English teacher, «doesn’t appear to be playing.» Kamiya «has been honing his message for some time,» Gatling said.

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Japan’s Sanseito Party leader Sohei Kamiya delivers a speech during the party’s rally in Tokyo on July 21, 2025, a day after the upper house election. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY/File Photo)

Some critics have expressed particular concern over what they call Kamiya’s anti-immigration stance. Immigration, however, has become a chief issue for the island nation. When former President Joe Biden called Japan «xenophobic» for failing to increase immigration in May 2024, Kamiya responded on social media. «It’s not that we’re xenophobic, we are being cautious after seeing your failures,» Kamiya said. «You are meddling too much in our internal affairs.» 

Gatling says categorizing the Japanese as xenophobic «just doesn’t ring true.» He explained that the country has «one of the most astonishing cultures in history,» formed by adopting Western culture and enriching it to create «a completely unique culture that has tremendous appeal around the world.»

Gatling says Kamiya is aiming for a return to traditional cultural values, while also lowering taxes and increasing food self-sufficiency, which is currently the lowest rate of all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations at 38%. 

President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 7, 2025.  (Getty Images)

The rice trade would be critical to this arrangement, with Sanseitō eager to curb imports of U.S. rice. At present, imports of U.S. rice are set to increase by 75%, thanks to a $550 billion trade deal President Donald Trump signed with Japan on July 22.

Another possible friction point in the future might be Sanseitō’s desire to turn the nation’s farmers into public sector employees, Gatling admitted. «The agriculture bloc is one of the most powerful in the LDP,» he explained. «I’m not sure how many of the farmers want to be public sector employees.»

While he says that it is too early to determine the future of Sanseitō in Japanese politics, Gatling said Kamiya has stated he is not «interested in building a coalition government.» Gatling believes the party’s future will hinge on preparations for subsequent elections and demonstrating that «they have reasonable policies.»

Chang said Sanseitō’s win was a loss for the LDP, which he says has «been adrift» since Abe’s 2020 resignation and subsequent 2022 assassination. Current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba «is weak and unpopular,» and the LDP now finds itself «in the minority in both houses of the Diet for the first time since the party was formed in 1955,» Chang said. «Ishiba is naturally catching the blame.»

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While the political waves leave Japan «rudderless,» Chang said to «expect Sanseitō to only get stronger, which means Japan will turn inward. Around the world, societies have had enough of large foreign populations that do not assimilate, so we should not be surprised that Kamiya will become even more influential.

«Change occurs slowly in Japan until it happens all at once. Japan is now on the verge of an all-at-once moment,» Chang said.