How Venezuela’s Socialists Unleashed the Tren de Aragua, America’s Fastest Growing Gang Threat

The Tren de Aragua, the current Venezuelan transnational crime syndicate terrorize several U.S. cities, established a robust criminal presence after socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro emptied Venezuela’s prisons in late 2023.

The Tren de Aragua has expanded its presence in recent years across several Latin American countries, such as Colombia, Chile and Peru, before reaching the United States, with several of its members crossing the southern U.S. border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began to follow Tren de Aragua will arrive at the border as early as March 2023.

The gang, which originally started in 2012 as a local trade union in the eponymous state of Aragua, has grown over the past decade into a full-fledged criminal syndicate under the auspices of the Maduro regime, with which it collaborates. believed to maintain deep ties. Tren de Aragua’s extensive list of crimes is said to range from theft, murder, extortion, contraband and kidnapping to drug, human and arms trafficking.

The gang reached its dramatic size largely thanks to the Venezuelan socialist prison policywhich gave the country’s major gangs complete internal control over prison facilities, running them under a pseudo-feudal system known locally as the Pranato (“Pranaat”).

The Maduro regime’s lenient prison policies, along with the Pranate system – which has its own extensive lexicon based on the language of the father, or “thug” — effectively enabled gang leaders to orchestrate criminal activity from within prisons. The gangs engaged in widespread extortion, kidnappings, and robberies, among other crimes, with apparent impunity, while the Venezuelan National Guard protects gang-controlled prisons from outside attacks.

Under the direction of Pranate of the Tren de Aragua in the Tocorón prison, located in Aragua, the gang’s founder and leader, Héctor “The Child” Guerrero, oversaw the group’s criminal activities and its international expansion in Latin America, which reportedly started in 2018.

Guerrero, as the prison pranalso oversaw the internal transformation of Tocorón, turning it into the gang’s headquarters with “amenities” such as its own zoo, baseball field, bars, casino, nightclub, bank, swimming pool, playgrounds and its own cryptocurrency farm.

The gang’s international expansion is believed began in places like the Colombian town of La Parada, where the gang engaged in extortion, smuggling and sexual exploitation of Venezuelan migrants fleeing socialism in what is now considered the worst migrant crisis in the Western Hemisphere.

In September, the Maduro regime “raids”Tocorón and “dismantled” the gang after years of apparent indifference toward Tren de Aragua and its extensive criminal activities. The “raid” ended with Tocorón being cleared of its inmates as part of a broader “security” initiative known as the Cacique Guaicaipuro Liberation Operation that resulted in the liberation of other prisons, such as the Tocuyito The prison — at the time Venezuela’s most populated — was also emptied.

Experts to believe that the Maduro regime negotiated with Guerrero before the “invasion,” allowing him and his top brass to safely escape through a series of tunnels that connected the prison center to nearby Lake Valencia. Gang members had often used the tunnels to freely enter and exit the prison at will. Guerrero’s whereabouts remain unknown at the time of writing.

Authorities from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Chicago, Illinois, reportedly confirmed the presence of Tren de Aragua gang members in the city since at least October 2023 — weeks after the “incursion” in Tocorón.

In the months following the “raids,” other U.S. cities began reporting criminal activity linked to the gang. U.S. authorities have confirmed the active presence of Tren de Aragua in other cities such as Miami, New York, ValleysAnd AtlantaAccording to internal Department of Homeland Security documentation, Tren de Aragua “green light“to its members to attack American law enforcement officers.

The city of Aurora, Colorado, which borders sanctuary city Denver also reported the gang’s presence on its territory, to take across entire apartment complexes. The Aurora Police Department announced last week the creation of a joint task force with both the Colorado State Police and the state Bureau of Investigation to address the growing threat of Tren de Aragua in the state.

In May, law enforcement authorities in Louisiana dismantled a sex trafficking ring linked to Tren de Aragua that arranged for its victims to be smuggled into the United States after teaching them how to apply for asylum at the southern border. The sex trafficking ring then forced the victims into prostitution to pay off the “debt” incurred by smuggling them into the United States.

The official “position” of the Maduro regime on the Tren de Aragua seems to vary depending on what suits them at any given moment. Several members of the rogue regime, such as Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and Attorney General Tarek William Saab has repeatedly maintained throughout the year that Tren de Aragua “does not exist” and is part of an alleged international smear campaign to tarnish the image of the rogue regime.

Last week, Gil claimed that Tren de Aragua – who he claims does not exist – is allegedly collaborating with the Venezuelan opposition to stage a coup against dictator Nicolás Maduro following his fraudulent presidential “re-election” in July.

Reports published in April indicated that the Maduro regime used the gang to track down Venezuelan dissidents abroad. Venezuelan dissident Ronald Ojeda was kidnapped from his home in Santiago, Chile, in late February by individuals linked to the Tren de Aragua. Ojeda’s body was found found buried in a suitcase under a concrete structure, ten days after his abduction.

In April, Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said convicted Tren de Aragua is considered a state-sponsored terrorist group and claims its criminal actions are “not autonomous” from those of the socialist Maduro regime.

“The Tren de Aragua doesn’t strike randomly. The Tren de Aragua strikes with a procedure, with a matrix of operations, with a logic that always does exactly the same thing,” Bullrich explained at the time. “It settles in a certain place. It comes with a group, generally of Venezuelan nationality.”

“That is why it is important to analyze whether it is an organization that is autonomous from the state or not autonomous from the state. I think it is not autonomous from the state,” she continued.

The Tocorón and Tocuyito prisons, emptied last year by Venezuelan socialists, will soon serve as the new prisons of the Maduro regime.re-education centers” for anti-socialists. The renovation is part of the Maduro regime’s ongoing brutal repression following the July 28 sham presidential election, which Maduro fraudulently claims he “won.”

The arrival of dissidents in the two prisons reportedly started this week – including groups of minors that the Maduro regime locked up due to the continued repression of dissidents.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer documenting life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.