The Aragua Train, an alert for Latin America to combat transnational crime

The authorities should focus their efforts on combating and curbing transnational organized crime in Latin Americasince criminal groups have managed to permeate all social layers, including governments, being the Aragua Train one of the greatest examples.

This is how the Venezuelan journalist and researcher expressed it in an interview with EFE Ronna Risquezabout his book “The Aragua Train. The gang that revolutionized organized crime in Latin America” (Planet). After years of following the trail of this “multinational crime”He gave his research the form of a book in 2022 after attending a workshop in Madrid with the argentinian Martin Caparros.

LOOK HERE: “The Aragua Train is multipurpose, it has many criminal activities”: Interview with the Venezuelan journalist Ronna Rísquez

“The point is not Aragua Trainthe point is organized crime in Latin America and what the authorities and governments should focus on is how to combat and stop it”, he assures, before recalling that the region has seen organized criminal groups with special characteristics such as the Mexican cartels and the maras (gangs) in Central America.

Venezuelan investigative journalist Ronna Risquez, author of the book “El tren de Aragua”, speaks during an interview with AFP in Caracas on March 22, 2023. (AFP Photo) (AFP STRINGER/)

The danger of the Aragua Train lies in the fact that it is not only trafficking drugs, especially cocaine, but also because it has other activities that generate sources of corruption in local, regional and national governments.

“There is more and more participation also from politics in activities or in organized crime groups”, warns the Venezuelan journalist.

View of the cover of the book “El tren de Aragua”, written by Venezuelan investigative journalist Ronna Risquez, in Caracas on March 22, 2023. (AFP Photo) (AFP STRINGER/)

A true urban legend

The Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization that emerged in Venezuela in 2014 and has spread its tentacles towards Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, bolivian and Chili.

According to Rísquez’s investigations, the transnational mega-band has its operations center in the prison of stumpin the Venezuelan state of Aragua.

The “Big house”, as the almost 5,000 people who are confined there call it, is dominated by the heads of the Tren de Aragua, among them Hector Rusthenford Guerreroaka the “warrior child“, one of the “founders” of the shadowy organization and who is serving a sentence of more than 17 years for crimes that include homicide and drug trafficking.

Rísquez entered stump and, to his surprise, he found that the “urban legend” It was true because there is a disco, swimming pool, playground, casino, restaurants with terraces, bars and liquor stores.

MORE INFORMATION: How the dreaded Tren de Aragua managed to spread its tentacles across Latin America from a Venezuelan jail

But there is more: ATMs and even a zoo where jaguars, pumas and other exotic animals that come to this place thanks to money from criminal activities roam.

The first victims of the Train are the same inmates who must pay a sum in dollars to “your safety”. They should do it weekly.

This is the first link in a chain of crimes that the gang has and that abroad becomes “a portfolio” of at least 20 crimes, including kidnapping, heist, scam, illegal gold mining, hit man, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

The victims

What is particular about the Aragua Train, says the researcher, is that they were able to “identify pockets of criminal business” that did not exist before or were controlled by local crime. One of their main sources of income are migrants and women for prostitution networks.

“First it was the Venezuelan women, who are pretty, then they realized that the Colombians were pretty too”, he explains, and says that for “hook them” use various methods including beauty contests or false promises of high-paying jobs.

The focus of the band is always on the Venezuelan population that emigrates in search of better horizons due to the crisis that Venezuela has been going through since 2015. Rísquez explains that El Tren de Aragua realized that on the borders of South America there were no “coyotes” and they began to control the irregular steps.

To this was added that the governments of the region were restricting the entry of Venezuelan migrants and realized that they are willing to pay to pass, so they took advantage of that need and others such as the lack of documentation for travelers .

ALSO SEE: SMP: man is shot to death by members of the ‘Tren de Aragua’ | VIDEO

At the same time, it has managed to have a presence in the countries thanks to alliances with local criminal groups and, in some cases, has led to fights for control of the territory. This has allowed it to become a transnational crime industry.

“My objective with the book is to make known what the dynamics of crime and violence in Venezuela are like and how they explain a good part of who we are and what is happening to us as a country, and I think that this is not necessarily very clear outside of Venezuela and even within Venezuela”, concludes Rísquez.

Source: Elcomercio