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Since Donald Trump took office as President of the United States on January 20, 2025, he has implemented several immigration measures targeting undocumented individuals living in the country. According to Trump, these policies aim to enhance national security.
One of these measures focuses on detaining and deporting Venezuelans identified as alleged members of the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua to high-security facilities such as Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in El Salvador.
Inside Tren de Aragua
The Tren de Aragua is an organized crime group that originated in Venezuela about 14 years ago within a labor union overseeing the construction of a railway segment in Aragua state. This information was shared by Luis Izquiel, a criminology professor at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), in an interview with BBC Mundo.
In its early years, the gang was involved in crimes such as contract killings, extortion, bribery, robbery, express kidnappings, and demanding kickbacks for construction jobs.
The Tren de Aragua solidified its reputation as one of Venezuela’s most powerful criminal organizations after the imprisonment of one of its key leaders, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as “Niño Guerrero,” at the Aragua Penitentiary Center, better known as Tocorón prison.
Once Guerrero Flores took control, he built a criminal network from inside the prison, extending its reach across the country.
Starting in 2016, as Venezuela’s economic crisis worsened and migration surged, the gang found new ways to profit from those fleeing the country in search of better opportunities. This was pointed out by journalist and researcher Ronna Rísquez in her interview with BBC Mundo.
Guerrero remained in Tocorón until September 2023, when Nicolás Maduro’s government confirmed his escape. Authorities have not yet disclosed his whereabouts.
The Tren de Aragua’s Expansion Across Latin America
In recent years, law enforcement agencies across Latin America have reported the presence of Tren de Aragua members in several countries, particularly Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru.
As the gang expanded its operations throughout the region, it was linked to crimes such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, sexual exploitation, robbery, extortion, and modern slavery.
“The Tren de Aragua controls irregular migration, exploiting it in the countries they pass through. This also allows them to learn from and adapt to other criminal networks,” said Pablo Zeballos, a former intelligence officer with Chile’s Carabineros police force and now a consultant on organized crime, in an interview with BBC Mundo.
According to Rísquez, one of the first confirmed sightings of the gang in Latin America was in Peru in 2018. Since then, dozens of arrests have been reported across the continent.
However, in 2023, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil claimed the gang had been dismantled—an assertion quickly criticized and refuted by regional leaders. Shortly after, Colombian authorities confirmed the arrest of Larry Amaury Álvarez Núñez, one of the Tren de Aragua‘s founders.
Latin American Countries Designate Tren de Aragua as a Terrorist Organization
In March 2025, Peru’s Congress passed a motion declaring Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization, citing its hierarchical structure, violent tactics, and destabilizing impact on Peru’s constitutional order.
Peruvian lawmakers also urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collaborate with the United Nations (UN) and regional bodies—including Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay—to push for the gang’s designation as a transnational terrorist organization.
The Tren de Aragua in the U.S.
The U.S. and Canada have joined Latin American countries in designating Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization.
“We first detected them in 2021, but police reports were scarce. By 2022, we saw an increase, and in 2023, even more. This year, the situation escalated dramatically,” said Joseph Humire, from the U.S.-based national security think tank Center for a Secure Free Society.
Additionally, Joseph Kerry, chief detective at the New York City Police Department, recently told The New York Times that authorities have documented the presence of suspected Tren de Aragua criminals in the city since January 2024.
On January 21, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order classifying Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization, along with six Mexican cartels and the Salvadoran gang MS-13. These groups were added to a list of designated terrorist organizations that includes ISIS and Al-Qaeda, prohibiting U.S. companies and citizens from providing material support to them.
Furthermore, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the designation in an official document published in the Federal Register, effective February 20.
Daniel Brunner, a special agent at the FBI specializing in criminal organizations, is one of the investigators handling the Tren de Aragua case in the U.S. He confirmed that the gang operates in at least 20 states across the country.
The Uncertainty Surrounding the Deportees’ Identities: Are All of Them Members of the Tren de Aragua?
Recent deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, based on the assumption that they are members of the Tren de Aragua, have raised questions about the validity of these accusations. While U.S. authorities have identified some of them as alleged members of the criminal gang, there is still no definitive proof that all deported individuals are connected to the organization.
Remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 17, suggest that those not linked to the Tren de Aragua could be sent back to Venezuela, highlighting the lack of clarity in the identification process and the risk that mistakes may be made in identifying deportees.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan government has denied the accusations. Minister Diosdado Cabello, in statements made on March 20, 2025, asserted that none of the 919 migrants repatriated since February belong to the criminal organization.
After receiving a flight with 311 deportees, Cabello dismissed the U.S. claims, stating that the U.S. government is “very confused” about the matter. In his view, Washington is manipulating the information and attempting to falsely link innocent people to the Tren de Aragua without evidence to back it up.
In response, the White House defended its use of the Foreign Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows for summary expulsions during wartime. According to Karoline Leavitt, White House spokesperson, the law is justified due to the actions of the Tren de Aragua, which, according to Washington, is conducting a “predatory incursion” on U.S. territory. This argument was used to justify the deportations to El Salvador, despite criticism over the use of a wartime law in the context of migration.
Translated by José Gregorio Silva
La entrada What Is the Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua and How It Spread Across Latin America and the U.S.? se publicó primero en El Diario.
