Maduro insists that the Tren de Aragua was defeated and disappeared in Venezuela

Caracas.– Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro insisted this Thursday that the Tren de Aragua gang, considered by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization, was defeated and disappeared from the country by security forces. “We defeated that Tren de Aragua group, we made them disappear with the law and the Constitution in hand, and all criminal groups,” the president affirmed during a visit to a commune in Caracas, broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). In this regard, he assured that the South American country “enjoys great security” because, he said, the police, intelligence, and counterintelligence system is “one of the best in the world”. He also questioned the accusation that his government allegedly sends “criminals” to the United States, an action he accused several opposition leaders of, including the Venezuelan leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, who arrived this Wednesday in Oslo (Norway), where she was awarded the recognition.

«They created a human trafficking network, and in that human trafficking network they took a recognized group of criminals through the Darién to the United States», he said, referring to the Tren de Aragua. The president added that “some time ago” his Administration provided evidence of these accusations to the “previous Government” and the “current Government” in the United States, referring to the administrations of former President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump.

The Expansion of Tren de Aragua

The Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization originating in Venezuela; it is considered the most powerful gang in the country and carries out assassinations, extortion, kidnappings, and trafficking and human trafficking, among other crimes. Since 2018, the group has expanded rapidly across the American continent along the route taken by Venezuelan migrants. In fact, the gang is already established in cities in Colombia, Peru, Chile and other countries. In January, Trump signed an executive order to classify Tren de Aragua – in addition to Mexican cartels and the Salvadoran gang MS-13 – as terrorist organizations. Tensions between Venezuela and the United States have been increasing since August, when the North American country deployed naval and air forces near Venezuelan waters, which it claims are part of its fight against drug trafficking, while Caracas insists that it is a threat to bring about a change of regime.