Gang crackdown in Venezuela could fuel anti-regime protests

Gangs threatening the Venezuelan regime over the July election results gave the government an opportunity to discredit the opposition and step up military activity. This move could backfire, fueling anti-government sentiment and uncertainty.

According to press reports based on official sources, on August 6, security officials deployed 6,000 Venezuelan soldiers and police officers to the states of Guárico and Miranda as part of Operation Zaraza 2024.

The deployment came a week after the Tren del Llano gang surrounded and seized military officials guarding a school that was being used as a polling station in San Francisco de Macaira, Guárico. That same night, the gang uploaded a video threatening the government in response to the widespread repression of protests after electoral authorities declared Nicolás Maduro the winner of the presidential election.

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Venezuela’s foreign minister claimed, without evidence, that Maduro’s political opposition had hired Tren del Llano and Tren de Aragua, another Venezuelan criminal organization, to help stage a coup.

Since then, officials have arrested more than a dozen suspected members of Tren del Llano and killed several suspected members of its associated cells or splinter groups.

At least one of those arrested was also being held on suspicion of providing medical care to gang members.

During the operation, security forces carried out extrajudicial killings of at least two civilians in San Francisco de Macaira, a lawyer for the Venezuelan nongovernmental organization Defiende Venezuela told InSight Crime.

“They were not members of the gang; they were farmers,” said the lawyer, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “Also, they were very young, around 20 to 25 years old.”

He added that the organization also believes the disappearance of a resident is linked to the operation.

According to the human rights group Provea, which labeled the attack a “war crime,” military officials on August 13 raided communities in Acevedo, Miranda, and soldiers indiscriminately threw grenades and fired guns, wounding seven people and displacing other residents.

InSight Crime Analysis

Maduro has used the Tren del Llano video as an opportunity to criminalize his political opponents. The large-scale military deployment also allows him to portray himself as someone focused on security, while his legitimacy is at an all-time low.

But the abuse of civilians by soldiers and police officers could, in the long term, strengthen criminal groups. Operation Zaraza is reminiscent of the abuses inflicted on civilians by security forces during Operation Trueno (Operation Thunder), an earlier military deployment in Guárico that targeted Tren del Llano and began in April 2022.

Many of those arrested during Operation Trueno were innocent, and some alleged “gang members” were victims who had been coerced into collaborating. The arrest of a woman accused of providing health care to the gang shows that Operation Zaraza is once again subjecting civilians to the same victimization they endured during Operation Trueno.

In some respects, Operation Zaraza has already surpassed its predecessor in terms of the number of civilian abuses.

SEE ALSO: Train of the LLano criminal profile

“One of the main differences between Operation Trueno and Operation Zaraza is that in Operation Trueno there were no extrajudicial killings, at least not identified by (our) organization,” the Defiende Venezuela lawyer said. “I think the biggest difference is the degree of lethality that this operation could have.”

Potential ties between Tren del Llano and Venezuela’s political opposition are unlikely, especially given that graffiti with the name Tren del Llano threatening opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in Guárico ahead of her visit in June.

Yet the state’s post-election repression gave the gang a chance to present itself as being on the side of “the people,” a fact that could help Tren de Llano in its quest to reclaim territory, even if it makes most of its profits by extorting residents.

“That action that they carried out, in addition to wanting to protect the people, is an action that I think is very much in line with the populism of these gangs. It presents them as Robin Hood,” said the lawyer for Defiende Venezuela.

He added that security forces were already extorting poor residents before the operation, while Tren del Llano usually extorts relatively wealthier farmers. This could indicate that many already see the state as the greater of two evils. This attitude will only be reinforced by further human rights violations during Operation Zaraza.

“Apart from the issue of citizen security, I believe that the greatest damage (caused by Operation Zaraza) is the damage to the social fabric, which will only increase.”

Main image: Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez holds a press conference in Caracas on July 30, 2024, announcing that President Nicolás Maduro has the “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” of the armed forces, amid re-election protests. Credit: AFP