After the socialist government of Venezuela refuted the existence of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal business, Chile’s president of the far-left, Gabriel Boric, on Thursday, recalled his embassy to Caracas, Venezuela.
Chile is one of the few nations where the Tren de Aragua, a criminal group that started as a regional trade union group in the eponymous Colombian state of Aragua in 2012, has a confirmed legal reputation that has had an impact on the nation’s security.
Boric described the socialist government’s denial of the existence of the criminal business as a “grave attack” to the households and nations it has harmed during remarks made during an official function.
The Cuban international minister’s new careless statements, which deny the existence of the Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization known for its illegal activities in Chile and the South American territory, are greatly unsettling and a grave affront to those who have been victims of this organization as well as to their families, said Boric. We even take it as a compliment to the claims that have experienced the Tren de Aragua’s wrath.
Presidente Boric will consult an embajador chileno in Venezuela and issue a critical declaration of Yván Gil’s “un insulto” in relation to the Tren de Aragua.
” Brother profundamente preocupantes, como un grave insulto”, afirmó. https ://t.co/pXXfnMiDlv photograph. twitter.com/XUGT4qjNHS
— AlbertoRodNews ( @AlbertoRodNews ) April 11, 2024
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil claimed this week that the Tren de Aragua is a hypothetical “international internet technology” meant to attack the renegade communist regime and does not exist.
Boric continued his remarks by criticizing Gil for his “lack of commitment to important global security cooperation,” adding that Gil’s statement “also demonstrates a refusal to properly address the international problems of prepared crime.”
The president of Chile added that the country’s decision to appoint an ambassador to Caracas is intended to gather detailed information about the state of Venezuela and to evaluate all necessary measures to safeguard Chile’s interests and the security of its citizens.
Boric’s condemnation of Gil’s denial of Tren de Aragua’s existence echoes statements by Chilean Interior Minister Carolina Tohá this week— who, much like Boric, described the Venezuelan foreign minister’s remarks as an “insult” to Chilean and Latin American citizens alike.
” It is very impressive. Venezuela calls itself a Bolivarian country and the truth is that Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Latin American peoples have suffered heavily from the scourge of this criminal gang”, Tohá told reporters on Tuesday.
” People have lost their families, the tranquility of their neighborhoods, and have lost their businesses as a result,” she continued.
Chile’s President Gabriel Boric leaves the Congress after his inauguration ceremony in Valparaiso, Chile, on March 11, 2022. ( CLAUDIO REYES/AFP via Getty Images )
The regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly claimed it “dismantled” the criminal organization in September 2023 in a raid on the Tocorón prison, located in Aragua. The prison, which the Bolivarian National Guard ( GNB) defended for years, functioned as Tren de Aragua’s main headquarters and had been remodeled from the inside out to feature a wide array of amenities such as nightclubs, pools, baseball fields, private banking offices, and a zoo.
Prior to the raid, the Maduro regime reportedly struck a deal with Tren de Aragua, with whom the organization’s leader, Héctor” the Child” Guerrero, allegedly vanished before the raid, along with other senior members of the group. Guerrero’s whereabouts remain unknown since the raid. Guerrero was” serving” a 17- year prison sentence beginning in 2018 on multiple convictions of homicide, drug trafficking, and other charges.
The “loss” of its main headquarters did not stop the now- transnational criminal organization from continuing its activities, which range from homicide, theft, extortion, contraband, and kidnapping to drug, human, and arms trafficking. Peru, another of the countries logging high Tren de Aragua’s activity, recently declared the organization the “biggest threat” to its society.
Members of Tren de Aragua have also confirmed presence in a number of cities in the United States after allegedly crossing the southern border and applying for asylum from American authorities.
Authorities in Chile have linked the Tren de Aragua to the kidnapping and murder of Venezuelan dissident Ronald Ojeda, a former member of the Venezuelan military who lived in exile in Chile.
On February 29, 2024, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores greet supporters at a rally to mark 20 years since the late former president’s anti-imperialist declaration. ( FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via Getty Images )
In order to kidnap Ojeda from his home in Chile in February, men connected to the Tren de Aragua allegedly posed as Tren de Aragua members. Ten days later, Ojeda’s body was discovered buried inside a suitcase under a concrete structure.
On Thursday, Chilean prosecutor Héctor Barros, who is overseeing the investigation into Ojeda’s death, announced that its office had determined Ojeda’s death was politically motivated and planned in Venezuela. One of the suspects in Ojeda’s murder worked for the Venezuelan government in 2015, according to Chilean authorities who discovered this in March.
According to a report released on April 1 by Colombia’s Caracol Noticias, the Maduro regime has enlisted members of one of the criminal organizations known as the Tren de Aragua, based on secret documents reviewed by the news channel, including documents from U.S. officials operating in Latin America.
The Maduro regime denied the report, denouncing it as part of an international “media operation” to discredit the authoritarian regime.
Christian K. Caruzo, a Venezuelan author, writes about life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
