Lawmakers Urge Biden to Label Venezuela Gang as Criminals
- Effort targets Tren de Aragua’s alleged expansion into US
- Rubio warns group will unleash ‘reign of terror’ if unchecked
Members of the Bolivarian National Police patrol on a quad bike at the Tocoron prison following a mass escape by Tren de Aragua members in Tocoron, Venezuela in Sept. 2023.
Photographer: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty ImagesRepublican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida are urging the Biden administration to designate Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in a new effort to curb the gang’s alleged expansion into the US.
The criminal group’s growth is closely tied to the exodus of more than seven million Venezuelans over the last decade. Originating in a prison 150 kilometers from Caracas around 2012, Venezuelan government security officials now consider the gang the most violent criminal organization in the country, regularly accused of orchestrating kidnappings, drug trafficking and controlling swaths of the capital’s slums.