The Aragua Train, considered the largest criminal organization in Venezuela, is once again in the news in the United States. Marco Rubio, Republican senator from Florida and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday that the criminal ring "is now transnational" and has reached American cities in a committee hearing focused on criminal networks and corruption in the Americas.
"This is a vicious gang. They initially established themselves in the prisons of Venezuela, but then they became endemic in Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia and Brazil," Rubio said at the hearing. "Now we are seeing evidence that they have reached the United States. Every day we see reports from Chicago, South Florida and New York that these gang members are here."
Last month, Rubio led along with Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar a bicameral letter addressed to President Joe Biden, urging him to designate the Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization. At the hearing, Rubio insisted on the need to achieve that designation and asked State Department official Chris Landberg about the status of the request.
Landberg said he was following the Tren De Aragua issue closely and said he had "similar" concerns to Rubio's. "We understand that you sent that letter. We are working very closely on the internal process. We do not want to discuss the details of our internal deliberations on sanctions or designations," explained the official, who assured that he will give periodic updates to the senator's team.
Rubio's statements echo the recent arrests of people allegedly linked to the criminal organization, both on the country's southern border and in several cities. The Chief of the Border Patrol, Jason Owens, reported on April 5 that agents from Ysleta, Texas, detained a Venezuelan citizen, with no criminal record, but with tattoos associated with the gang.
In January, a Telemundo Chicago investigation confirmed the presence of members of the gang in that city and arrests have also been made in New York, Georgia, Florida and Chicago.
"This is a particularly cruel gang that specializes in extortion, kidnapping, rape, contract murder and everything you can imagine," Rubio said at the Senate hearing.
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a specialist in drug trafficking and migration at George Mason University, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that, although the criminal gang has a regional presence, "it is not necessarily as important as Rubio is making it out to be."
"It seems to me that his statements are exaggerated because I have not seen data that presents the Tren de Aragua as such a powerful organization in the United States," explained the academic. And she added: "He presents it as a transnational issue, without giving data and without specifying where the judicial investigations in this regard are."
Ronna Rísquez, Venezuelan journalist specialized in security issues and author of
El Tren de Aragua: The gang that revolutionized organized crime in Latin America
, explained in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that Rubio's statements "seemed to have a political intention" that could respond to the electoral process that is being experienced in the United States.
In addition, he pointed out that they could also affect Venezuelan migrants who have arrived in the United States in recent years. "The delicate thing is that these accusations can criminalize Venezuelan migration that is in that country," warns the researcher.
Noticias Telemundo interviewed a migrant in Washington, who did not want to identify himself, because he expressed his fear about the reactions that the gang's presence in the country has generated. "If we were from the Tren de Aragua we would not be here. Those from the Tren de Aragua have money, they are an organized gang and they have money, we don't," she explained.
The band generates diplomatic tensions
This Thursday, the Chilean Government announced that it will call its ambassador in Venezuela, Jaime Gazmuri, for consultations, in protest against recent statements by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, in which he denied the existence of the Aragua Train.
"The recent irresponsible statements by the Chancellor of Venezuela that ignore the existence of the Tren de Aragua, a criminal group known for its illicit activities in Chile and throughout the South American region, are deeply worrying and constitute a serious insult to those who have been victims of this organization," said Chilean President Gabriel Boric at an official event.
Gil, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, assured on Monday that the criminal gang does not exist – despite the evidence – and blamed the media for its alleged invention. "The Aragua Train is a fiction created by the international media to try to create a non-existent label," said Gil, in a meeting held in the Colombian city of Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela.
The existence and operations of the Aragua Train have been documented by the media and police investigations that qualify it as the most powerful criminal structure in Venezuela and the only local group that has managed to gain a foothold outside its borders. The State Department has recorded its involvement in human trafficking in countries such as Colombia and Peru, where authorities listed the gang as “public enemy number one” in April.
The origin of this organization, based in the Venezuelan prison of Tocorón, dates back to 2005, when a union of workers working on the construction of a railway line between the states of Aragua and Carabobo began to extort contractor companies in exchange for of security.
The Aragua Train began to follow the route of Venezuelans who began to flee the complex humanitarian emergency that has impacted Venezuela since 2014 (the UN estimates that more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country). Members of the gang have been detected in countries such as Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Panama and the United States.
Correspondent Cristina Londoño collaborated in this report.