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Tren de Aragua
Tren de Aragua in the eye of the storm
Who or what is the Tren de Aragua? In an interview with news network CNN on 21 March this year US President Donald Trump had his answer: “They’re a group of thugs.... Read More
If, as an academic exercise, anyone wished to identify the social conditions that might most contribute to a crime wave, looking at Venezuela over the last decade might be a good place to start.... Read More
There is a broad agreement among reporters that the TdA first emerged as a criminal force around 2014, in a prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, around 130kms west of the capital Caracas.... Read More
Many media outlets have focused on sensationalist claims that TdA leaders led a life of blatant luxury in Tocorón.... Read More
The Casa Grande was part of a sophisticated and ruthlessly pursued business model.... Read More
Tocorón prison’s central role in running the Tren’s criminal empire may – or may not – have come to an end on 23 September 2023.... Read More
Colombia: Body parts in Bogotá... Read More
On 21 February 2024 Ronald Ojeda, a former lieutenant in the Venezuelan army, was kidnapped in Chile.... Read More
On the night of 15/16 March this year, three aircraft landed at San Salvador airport.... Read More
One of the deportees on the flights to El Salvador ordered by President Donald Trump in mid-March was a Salvadoran citizen, Kilmar Abrego García.... Read More
Over the last decade many Latin American politicians have successfully attracted voters by appealing to citizen concerns over inward migration, safety, and crime.... Read More
By way of conclusion, it is worth asking – and seeking to answer - four questions that have run through most of the narrative of this report.... Read More
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- “Very, very dangerous people”
- The context: a country in a state of collapse
- Origins: Tocorón prison
- A dystopian hotel?
- The prison business model
- Death of the Tren?
- Life after death: international expansion
- The Ronald Ojeda story
- Donald Trump’s ‘invasion model’
- Unfair deportation: the Kilmar Abrego story
- Is there a connection between crime and migration?
- Conclusion: answering four key questions