By pointing out that people associated with this Venezuelan criminal gang mix with groups of migrants who request asylum once they arrive in the United States, security protocols were intensified.
When the mass exodus of Venezuelan migration began, there was talk of a “pattern” of destabilization with alleged criminals who infiltrated the groups that left on foot for the border.
Chicago and New York
The violent events in which Venezuelans have been involved in New York and Chicago, indicated to be linked to the Aragua Train, have revived the 1980s when departure by boat was authorized from the port of Mariel, in Cuba, through a sea bridge to the US and with this the regime infiltrated among the families that were taken in by their exiled relatives, convicted criminals and people with mental illnesses taken from psychiatric hospitals.
“I think Venezuela is deliberately emptying its prisons and sending these people here, like (Fidel) Castro did in the eighties,” said former FBI Deputy Director Chris Swecker in a statement to Fox News.
Chris Swecker made a parallel between what is being seen on the streets of these cities with the “wave of crime” experienced in South Florida since the so-called Mariel crisis.
In that decade 125,000 Cubans left for the United States; It was the response given by the Havana dictatorship to the call of then US President Jimmy Carter to respect human rights. “Later studies document that between 16,000 to 20,000 (of the so-called) Marielitos were criminals,” said retired colonel of the US Armed Forces and former intelligence officer, Octavio Pérez.
For his part, journalist Javier Ignacio Mayorca, specialized in criminology, consultant and member of the Venezuelan Observatory of Organized Crime, when referring to the fact that the US warns that the so-called “judicial revolution” hides Miraflores’ purpose of generating a wave of violence and crime north of the Rio Grande, he asked himself: “Does this have any basis?… Until now, there is no documented evidence in this regard,” he indicated.
Migration opens the door to undesirables
You can compare Mariel from 1980 to the border from 2017-2024, said expert Octavio Pérez. He confirmed that American intelligence has already been able to detect several members of the Tren de Aragua due to specific tattoos, as do those of the Mara Salvatruchas (an extensive criminal organization born in Los Angeles, California, with tentacles in several countries)… And also because of the techniques of using scooters (motorcycles) to steal phones and other modus operandi that identify them, the retired military officer pointed out.
For his part, former FBI official Chris Swecker warned about the risks that in his opinion represents a possible alliance between members of the Tren de Aragua and the Mara Salvatrucha.
Journalist Mayorca pointed out that “there will probably be outbreaks of violence in the US as happened in the 80s with the Marielitos when they tried to establish themselves in South Florida by trying to displace other networks.”
Enemies of the US enter through the Southern Border
“The enemies of the United States know the method and improve it with each uncontrolled immigration,” said former military officer Octavo Pérez, who said that there could be “a parallel between Mariel’s departure and this open door for Biden on the southern border.”
Pérez said that “there are few references because Venezuela does not share criminal records, but if some of these people were in Peru, Argentina, Chile, Brazil or Colombia they can be identified because these nations do.”
“We have been establishing a database for almost 4 years since these were detected on the border since 2017,” Pérez added. “The first migrations brought families. The latest trend is young men alone,” a concern expressed by this security expert.
American intelligence after asylum requests
In Chicago, the police detected the mobilization of members of the dangerous criminal organization since October 2023, who would be operating among the immigrants who arrived in that city.
These facts are added to the detection of at least 38 members of the Aragua Train, in six other US border sectors, according to reports made by the Border Patrol.
The police chief of the Windy City suburb of Willow Spring, Garry McCarthy, reported that the Aragua Train faction is operating mainly in the trafficking of Latino people to the United States.
Miami-Dade County authorities also gave notice of the presence of suspects from the Aragua Train. One of those arrested would have identified himself as a member of that gang.
security mechanisms
In Mayorca’s opinion, the Cuban emigrants went by raft and the Venezuelan diaspora takes a long sea and land journey where there is intensive intervention by organized crime groups in almost all phases of the journey, which is a difference, “but without There is undoubtedly a parallelism” between these two migrations.
Mayorca believes that the US has mechanisms to filter the passage of undesirables through the southern land border and has made an investment in the border area and in cooperation plans with allied countries to establish facial recognition systems.
However, the journalist suggests that the presence of individuals associated with the Aragua Train in the US “has to be properly documented and confirmed beyond an Intelligence report that warns of it.”
The US is another market
For journalist Ronna RÍsquez, the presence of the Tren de Aragua in the US does not respond to “a state policy” but to an expansion of the gang as it did in Latin America, taking advantage of the exodus of Venezuelans.
Consider that “the US is another market. The Aragua Train is also moving due to police pressure in several nations in the region.”
The journalist who wrote the book Aragua Train. The gang that revolutionized organized crime in Latin America He said that this criminal structure has been operating since 2014 and spread across nine Latin American countries. It was conducted from the Tocorón Judicial Confinement Center (located in the south of the state of Aragua, which is located in the north-central part of the country), dismantled in 2023, led by Héctor Guerrero, alias “Niño Guerrero.”
“Several members of the Aragua Train have indeed been identified in the United States. What is not yet clear is whether they are actually already operating in activities similar to those that the group has carried out in other countries,” said Rísquez.
The researcher added that “until now there is the presence of members of the Aragua Train in the United States but there is no clarity about the existence of an operation by that gang in the United States, so I think that is also another element that must be specified.”
The journalist agrees with the difficulty that the United States has in identifying criminals due to the lack of information exchange between both countries.
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Source: Journalistic inquiries to former retired military officer Octavio Pérez/ Journalists and researchers Javier Ignacio Mayorca and Ronna Rísquez/ El Universo/ El Estímulo/ Diario las Américas
