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As Venezuela’s political crisis reaches a breaking point, members of the Venezuelan opposition warn that there will be an increase in Train from Aragua gang violence with deadly consequences for the US if socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro remains in power.
Despite widespread belief among Venezuelans and much of the international community that Maduro lost the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to the opposition candidate. Edmundo González Urrutiawas sworn in to his third six-year term on Friday.
But with the leader of the opposition María Corina Machado calling on Venezuelan citizens to join her in the streets to demand that González be installed as Venezuela’s legitimate president, the stage is now set for a showdown with the Maduro regime.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Machado, whose supporters said she was temporarily seized by the authorities and later released after a demonstration on Thursday, warned that if Maduro is not stopped there will be millions of Venezuelan migrants fleeing the country for the US
“If Maduro stays, get ready that we will see three, four or five million Venezuelans crossing the border,” he said.
On the other hand, Machado told Fox News Digital: “I want you to know how important it is to the security of the American people as well.”
“We are also desperate to solve the problem migration problem in our region,” he said. “We want these Venezuelans to return in their billions and voluntarily. And that will happen when they see that there is a future in their country.”
Meanwhile, José Gustavo Arocha, a former Venezuelan military officer who fled persecution by the Maduro regime, told Fox News Digital that gang violence in the United States by the Maduro-aligned criminal group Tren de Aragua will get worse if it continues being president
Tren d’Aragua, also known by its acronym “TdA”, is in Spanish “Train from Aragua”. This is a brutal international gang that victimizes both Venezuelan migrants and Americans and has unleashed a wave of violence in recent months, including kidnappings, torture, robberies and taking over entire apartment buildings.
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Supporters of Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hold their photographs during a campaign rally in Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela, on July 23, 2024. (Raul Arboldea/AFP via Getty Images)
Arocha, who is now a senior fellow at the US-based Center for a Secure Free Society, told Fox News Digital that “if Maduro stays in power, he will probably use the Aragua Train as a tool of coercion and asymmetric tactics to achieve their goals.”
“Migration, armed with elements of the Aragua Train, will serve as leverage to seek relief from economic sanctions and gain legitimacy from the United States,” he said. “Repression, economic collapse and chaos in Venezuela will continue to be the cornerstones of Maduro’s state policy. As a result, migrants who are deported will likely return, as in recent years they have established logistical routes that the allow you to navigate clandestine paths along the southern border.”
Alberto Ray, a security and risk strategist who helps manage Machado’s security, told Fox News Digital that the situation in Venezuela is “extremely explosive.” He said that “more Maduro is more Tren de Aragua in the US”
These images from a CBP intelligence bulletin show Tren d’Aragua (TdA) tattoos and IDs. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of known or suspected TdA members. (ICE)
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While Ray noted that most Venezuelan migrants are honest and hardworking people, he said Maduro has been “weaponizing” migration to sow chaos and discord in the US. He said it is “inevitable” that TdA’s presence in the US will grow if the Maduro regime. continue
“It’s a very small fraction of Venezuelans who were introduced into those migration processes designed by the regime … but it doesn’t take too many to destabilize, create chaos, install organized crime processes in the United States,” Ray said. “What will happen if Maduro stays in power is that illegal and armed migration will continue to leave Venezuela and this increases the likelihood that Tren de Aragua and other gangs will migrate and be in the region, including the US.”
On the other hand, Ray said that if Maduro is stopped, “we will see Venezuelans return to Venezuela because many of them did not want to leave.”
THE VENEZUELAN TREN D’ARAGUA GANG IS A “NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT”, WARNS A RETIRED ICE SPECIAL AGENT
President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a press conference after testifying in front of the election hall at the main headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice at the presidential palace in Miraflores in Caracas, Venezuela, on August 2, 2024. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
While he said both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration have been very supportive, Ray urged the US to take a strong stand against Maduro not only for the sake of Venezuelans but also for Americans. He urged the US government to shed light on what is happening in Venezuela and to strictly enforce the sanctions already in place against Maduro and several members of his government.
He said “the next 72 hours will be critical.”
“Maduro has no one to support him, but some factions within the armed forces, and he is counting on those factions to support him and make him president,” Ray explained, adding: “There are no two sides. There is a large Venezuelan side that is democratic, and they are seeking and trying to recover democracy. And there is a small group that is in power that is fighting desperately to maintain its privileges and maintain its position in power.”
