Tag: venezuela

FBI Says Venezuelan Officials ‘Likely Using’ Tren de Aragua Gang

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says Venezuelan government officials may be using Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members, according to a Fox News report.

A “senior” Trump administration official shared with Fox News, “unclassified portions” of an FBI assessment, which found that officials within Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime, were using TdA gang members “as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize” countries such as the U.S., Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, according to the outlet:

Fox News Digital has learned that the FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials are likely using Tren de Aragua members as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and the United States. The official said the FBI assesses that this demonstrates Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s willingness to violate the territorial sovereignty of Venezuela’s neighbors to advance his regime’s policies.

FBI officials have reportedly assessed that within “six to 18 months,” Venezuelan government officials will try to “leverage” TdA gang members in the U.S. to act as “proxy actors to threaten, abduct and kill members of the Venezuelan diaspora” who have been “vocal critics of Maduro,” according to the outlet.

The report comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have faced legal challenges from several judges in response to the deportations of Venezuelan migrants who are suspected of being TdA members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.

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Rubio Threatens Venezuela With War Over Essequibo Region

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed Thursday that the United States will respond forcefully if Venezuela attacks Guyana, amid an ongoing territorial dispute that includes massive oil and gas reserves. Rubio said it would be a “very bad day” for Venezuela should that happen, reported AP.

During a visit to Guyana, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Venezuela against aggression over the Essequibo region, hinting at possible U.S. military response.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro fired back, calling Rubio an “imbecile” and declaring Venezuela would not be threatened.

The century-old Essequibo dispute reignited after ExxonMobil’s 2015 oil discovery. The U.S. has since boosted military and intelligence ties with Guyana.

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Maduro Bends The Knee: Venezuela Agrees To Resume US Deportation Flights Of Illegal Immigrants

Venezuela has said it will once again accept U.S. repatriation flights carrying its nationals deported for illegally entering the United States.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro announced that a deal had been reached in a televised address on Saturday.

“Tomorrow, thanks to the government’s perseverance, we’ll resume flights to continue rescuing and freeing migrants from prisons in the United States,” Maduro said.

Venezuela’s Parliament President and chief negotiator with the United States, Jorge Rodriguez, said in a statement on social media, “We have agreed with the U.S. government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with an initial flight tomorrow, Sunday.”

This will prevent illegal immigrants who are Venezuelan nationals from being deported to detention centers in El Salvador, as well as guarantee “the return of our compatriots to their nation with the safeguard of their Human Rights,” he said, referring to Venezuelan gang members currently detained in El Salvador.

“Migrating isn’t a crime, and we won’t rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador,” Rodriguez added.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened on March 18 further harsh sanctions after Maduro on March 8 suspended taking in repatriation flights in response to the U.S. Treasury Department’s withdrawal of Chevron’s license to participate in Venezuela’s oil

A diplomatic spat erupted, with the United States threatening to send criminal illegal immigrants from Venezuela to El Salvador for detention if Caracas would not accept them.

Some 350 Venezuelan nationals had already been deported back home as part of Trump’s rapid deportation program that prioritizes removing illegal immigrants who are violent criminals or terrorists. Among them were some 180 alleged to be Tren de Aragua members who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Tren de Aragua originated in a Venezuelan prison. Members have accompanied an exodus of millions of economic immigrants and political refugees from Venezuela seeking better living conditions after their nation’s democracy and economy came undone last decade.

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The Empire of Crime: María Corina Machado and Edmundo González accuse Maduro of leading the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel of the Suns.

The statement issued on March 17, 2025, by María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, was a forceful attack against Nicolás Maduro.
In it, they directly accused him of being the leader of two of the most dangerous criminal organizations in Hispanic America: the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel of the Suns.
Machado and González claim that these organizations do not operate independently but are instruments of Maduro’s regime.

According to María Corina, the Tren de Aragua is involved in drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and other serious crimes, affecting both Venezuelans and citizens of other countries. The Cartel of the Suns, meanwhile, is allegedly composed of senior government officials and military personnel engaged in large-scale drug trafficking.
Her statement highlights how these mafias have extended their reach beyond Venezuela. The Tren de Aragua, originating in Aragua state, has committed numerous murders both inside and outside the country, including in Chile, according to data from the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office.

In Santiago, for instance, it is blamed for assassinations and extortion activities. Additionally, she mentions cases in Peru and Colombia, where the gang has been linked to human trafficking networks.

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Venezuela Debuts Website to Report ‘Unjust Deportations’ of Illegals from U.S.

Venezuela’s socialist regime launched a new website Tuesday that allows individuals to report alleged “unjust deportations” of Venezuelan illegal migrants from the United States “before it’s too late.”

The website is managed by the “Committee for the Defense of Venezuelan Migrants,” an organization directly affiliated with the Venezuelan socialist regime that describes itself as an organization “committed to the defense and promotion of human rights focused on denouncing and making visible the situation of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S.”

“We are a collective committed to the defense and promotion of human rights focused on denouncing and making visible the particular situation of vulnerability of Venezuelan citizens in the United States, whose presidential policy has been dedicated to stigmatize migration,” the website reads. “The persecution, imprisonment and deportation of Venezuelans without due process is an aberration that should not be indifferent to us and that constitutes an anachronistic and illegal act that evokes the most nefarious episodes of human history.”

The recently-launched website features a fillable form asking “victims” of the deportations, relatives, non-government organizations, or other individuals to report incidents of “unjust deportations.” In addition, the website asks individuals to pledge their support for a manifesto against President Donald Trump and the 1798 Alien Enemies Act under the premise that, “If they treat us as enemies, we must unite.”

“Sign for yourself, for the future, for your children, for every Venezuelan brother and sister in a similar situation. United we are invincible,” the website declared.

The website is part of dictator Nicolás Maduro’s “response” to President Donald Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport a group of 238 Venezuelans suspected of being members of the Tren de Aragua terrorist organization to El Salvador on Sunday as per the terms of an agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. The Maduro regime first condemned the deportation of the migrants by claiming that the deportations were comparable to “slavery” and “Nazi concentration camps.” Hours later, Maduro vowed that he and his regime would “not rest” until the Venezuelan deportees “kidnapped” by Bukele are “rescued” from El Salvador.

In addition to the website, the Committee for the Defense of Venezuelan Migrants launched an accompanying Instagram account whose content features Artificial Intelligence-generated images of President Trump and President Bukele depicted as “the duo of evil,” accompanied with a text that reads, “if they mess with one [Venezuelan], they mess with all of Venezuela.”

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Report: ICE Detains Venezuelan Colonel Accused of Torturing Dissidents

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Rafael Jose Quero Silva, a Venezuelan ex-military official living in the U.S. accused of repressing and torturing students protesting against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, El Nuevo Herald reported on Sunday.

Quero Silva, a former colonel in Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and commander of GNB’s Detachment 47, was reportedly under FBI investigation on accusations of committing human rights violations against Venezuelan dissidents protesting the Maduro regime in the Venezuelan state of Lara between 2013 and 2017.

At the time of writing, ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System listed Quero Silva as in custody at ICE’s Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida.

“Two victims reported him to the FBI. I also denounced him, I spoke with FBI agents and they were investigating him,” José Antonio Colina, a retired Venezuelan serviceman and political exile, told El Nuevo Herald, a Florida-based Spanish-language newspaper, on Sunday.

Colina, who leads a group known as Venezuelans Persecuted Politically in Exile (VEPPEX), said that Quero Silva moved to America with his wife and children and that “presumptively” his father-in-law also resides in the U.S. through an “investor’s visa.”

Colina further asserted that Quero Silva was subject to immigration proceedings. He added that he thought it was “pathetic” that an alleged human rights violator would “hide” in the United States after supporting the Venezuelan socialist regime.

Quero Silva moved to the U.S. and requested political asylum alongside his family at some point in 2017, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Monday citing Venezuelan news outlets. Venezuelan politicians and representatives of civil rights organizations accused Quero Silva repressing and torturing dissidents in the Venezuelan state of Lara during two waves of protests between 2013 and 2014.

Venezuela underwent a period of protests in mid-2013 after late dictator Hugo Chávez died from an undisclosed type of cancer in March 2013. Chávez’s death automatically prompted a snap election in April 2013 that current dictator Nicolás Maduro “won” by a roughly 1.5-percent vote difference. Prior to his death, Chávez appointed Maduro as his vice president in late 2012. This effectively allowed Maduro to assume the interim presidency of Venezuela from the moment of his predecessor’s death.

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Trump Envoy Richard Grenell Secures Release of Americans Held in Venezuela Amid Tense Relations

In a highly significant diplomatic move, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell, successfully negotiated the release of six American citizens from Venezuelan custody.

This development occurred today, following Grenell’s meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.

This breakthrough comes at a critical time when the Trump administration has been actively pursuing an aggressive stance against crime, including ramping up deportation efforts for illegal immigrants and cracking down on dangerous gangs operating in the United States.

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Fears grow over spread of sadistic super gang Tren de Aragua across America… as expert issues chilling new warning

Fears are growing over the spread of a violent Venezuelan gang across the US, with experts warning the mobsters could have a foothold in more than half the country by February next year.

It emerged earlier this month that Tren de Aragua, which has been dubbed the ‘epitome of evil’ and ‘MS-13 on steroids’, is already operating in 18 states.

This includes some of the most remote corners of the America in Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. The bloodthirsty criminals also maintain strongholds in major cities across Texas as well as New York and Chicago. 

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, former immigration and customs enforcement director for Colorado and Wyoming, John Fabbricatore, said: ‘We’re going to start hearing stories about them getting arrested everywhere.

‘They’re in 17 states now. I wouldn’t be surprised if by February, that’s higher than 25.’

Known as TdA to law enforcement, the gang originated in a Venezuelan prison. 

Members of the South American mafia have since crept into the US via the southern border, hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country under the Biden administration.  

They can often be identified by telltale tattoos, including a train (‘tren’ is Spanish for train), a crown, a clock and an AK-47.

Earlier this year, Daily Mail revealed how the gang set up its new headquarters in the Mexican city of Juarez on the US border, just across from El Paso, Texas. 

And startling police investigations have showed how the mob is behind a spiraling crime wave across America, with gangsters accused of murders, violent attacks on cops and sex trafficking. 

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Venezuelan Gang Is Reportedly Terrorizing North Dallas

A video went viral earlier this week depicting the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua allegedly assaulting a man in a North Dallas neighborhood.

Several multiple local outlets have covered the video, connecting  it to assertions that a Venezuelan gang is taking over a neighborhood in North Dallas.

It should be noted that this video is a year old according to Dallas police sources that were in contact with WFAA. Law enforcement sources also claimed that this was an isolated incident and not related to organized gang activity 

However, in a separate instance, law enforcement officials announced that the Dallas police department is investigating gang activity in the North Dallas area connected to Tren de Aragua.

“Our department is collaborating with other agencies to address possible crimes linked to this and other gangs in our city,” Dallas police announced in a statement. 

The aforementioned video was recorded in October 2023 and the case is apparently close. The video footage shows a group of Spanish-speaking males brutally pummeling a man. Gang unit officers launched an investigation of the incident and swept through the apartments in the Haverwood Lane area of North Dallas. Law enforcement initially believed that the assault was not connected to gang activity. 

Libs of TikTok reposted this video on X on September 3. This same account also disseminated information about the Tren de Aragua gang moving into several apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. This incident has sparked uproar as allegations of the Venezuelan gang taking over these complexes have begun to proliferate across the web.  These claims gained steam after the release of a video showing armed individuals inside one of the apartment buildings. 

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Bombshell report reveals Venezuelan gang has had Aurora complex in a ‘stranglehold’ for over a year

A Venezuelan gang took over an apartment Complex in Colorado more than a year ago, according to a Denver law firm’s report.

The Tren de Aragua, a criminal group from Venezuela, has had a ‘stranglehold’ on the Whispering Pines Apartments in Aurora since late 2023, the law firm Perkins Coie claimed in a letter to Aurora officials.

The firm found that the gang has engaged in assaults, threats of murder, extortion and even child prostitution, as reported by CBS News Colorado.

The law firm was hired by the lender for Whispering Pines Apartments, 1357 Helena Street, to investigate the reported takeover and claims the gang has been extorting ‘rents’ from people they moved into vacant units.

The vacant units have reportedly been used to host ‘parties’ where the gang provides ‘drug and child prostitution,’ according to the apartments’ manager, who added that ‘minors are a good source of money.’

The Aurora Police Department has denied claims that the complex has been overrun by gangsters. 

However, the report, issued in August, says that ‘Tren de Aragua has threatened to kill (and, in certain instances, has apparently actively attempted to kill) members of Whispering Pines management.’ 

In November, 2023, a consultant for the complex’s management company was so allegedly severely beaten and stomped by gang members that he had to go to the hospital.

The gang’s activities reported escalated this year, with a housekeeper claiming in April 2024 that a two individuals ‘went into an apartment, came out with large firearms, and were coming to kill [the property manager].’

The property manager said the two individuals were gang members and arrested as they were coming to kill him.’

The manager also claimed ‘gang members allegedly stabbed a Whispering Pines resident for refusing to pay “rent” to the gang.’

He told the law firm that in June the gangsters offered to help him if he paid them 50 percent of the funds collected in rents. 

A housekeeper reported that a gang member told her: ‘This is our business plan… If he [property manager] doesn’t like it, we’ll fill him with bullets.’

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