Aurora police maintain local surveillance after call for global protests over Venezuelan election

AURORA | Aurora police will increase their patrols on Saturday in light of expected protests in the region over Venezuela’s inconclusive presidential election.

The city’s heightened alert comes after 3,000 to 4,000 Venezuelan migrants and their supporters gathered in the parking lot of the Gardens on Havana shopping mall on July 28 to await the election results. Most in the crowd expected the ouster of incumbent strongman Nicolás Maduro, who later declared himself the winner of a new six-year term.

Aurora police acknowledged they were unprepared for the crowds who packed the southern end of the mall in front of the Target store, where witnesses reported gunfire. Traffic was backed up by parked cars. Some stores, whose customers said they were alarmed by the noise of Venezuelans honking and banging pots, decided to close early. Beer bottles and trash littered the lot.

According to police, no injuries were reported, no arrests were made and no one was fined or summoned.

However, some anti-immigration members of the community took the opportunity to post on social media that the gathering was a riot and that it was organized by the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua (TDA).

Police disputed these claims. They also denied a Facebook post by Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky that “Thousands of these people took over a section of our city and completely shut it down. The police were completely overwhelmed and were forced to leave the area for their own safety.”

City officials have repeatedly disputed this story.

“Police did not leave and were present throughout the entire event,” Aurora spokesman Ryan Luby said in a statement.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the battle for Maduro’s victory over opposition candidate Edmundo González continues. His government has arrested thousands of protesters and cracked down on other forms of protest.

Several Latin American countries, as well as the United States and the European Union, have postponed recognition of the election results and are demanding detailed data from Venezuelan polling stations in order to analyze the results.

On Thursday afternoon, leaders of Brazil and Colombia called for new elections with safeguards against vote fraud and false counts. In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden voiced support for new elections in remarks to reporters, which the White House later appeared to backtrack on.

Another rally of Venezuelans is expected on Saturday as opposition leader María Corina Machado has called on her supporters to take to the streets worldwide to show support for her party’s claim that González has overwhelmingly defeated Maduro.

“Let us shout together that the world must support our victory and recognize the truth and popular sovereignty,” she said.

Venezuelans are still undecided about where to gather Saturday in the Denver metropolitan area, where some 40,000 migrants have arrived in recent years.

Some alone and others with young children have traveled to North America and Colorado to escape poverty and violence at home. Most have no immigration papers and several have the sentry They are torn between the desire to resist what they see as a stolen election by a tyrant, and their fear of being arrested here for their protest, and then deported at a time of extreme unrest in their home country.

Aurora’s Global Fest, the city’s largest annual festival, takes place this weekend on the Great Lawn of the Aurora Municipal Center, which has been the site of many political demonstrations in recent years.

The city’s police department posted on social media earlier this week that it is “actively monitoring the situation given recent events” and “will provide communications and updates to our community if we learn of any large gatherings planned for or taking place in Aurora.”

Aurora Acting Deputy Police Chief Chris Juul said the city “recognizes and values ​​everyone’s First Amendment right to have their voice heard, but wants to make it clear that we will not tolerate any criminal activity.”

“If we had known ahead of time what was going to happen, we would have done some extra preparation,” he said of the July 28 gathering, noting that his department plans to keep any crowd that gathers in Aurora on Saturday safe, along with local business owners, police officers and the general public.

Juul characterized the July 28 meetup as a “spontaneous gathering” rather than a riot or gang-organized flash mob. Still, he acknowledged that the “large population of migrants” to Aurora has come with some “criminal influence” and “organized crime.”

He said his department identified several gang members at an apartment complex at 1568 Nome St. that was closed by city officials on Tuesday, forcing more than 100 families — many of them recent Venezuelan migrants — to seek shelter in hotels. He declined to specify which gang those members belong to and said he “can’t specify whether or not we’ve had any arrests” of Venezuelan gang members.

“I don’t think Venezuelan gangs pose a major security risk in the city of Aurora,” he said.

Immigrant rights groups have sentry They are closely monitoring how police handle migrants from Venezuela in a city where police have been criticized and investigated for years for excessive force and racial profiling.

These groups reacted differently to the July 28 election night rally. One, SOS Venezuela Denver, condemned the gunfire, noise and rowdiness as a disrespect to a city that has warmly welcomed migrants. The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition defended the rally as peaceful and stressed Venezuelans’ right to assemble in July and beyond.

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