A former Venezuelan military official is warning that the immigrant gang Torren de Aragua (TdA) is being used as a tool of the Venezuelan government, sowing violence and discord across the United States.
Torren de Aragua, which means “Train from Aragua,” is a large-scale criminal and terrorist organization that originated in a Venezuelan prison ten years ago and already has a presence in more than 30 major cities in the United States.
Jose Gustavo Arocha, a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan military, told Fox News Digital that socialist Venezuelan leader Nicolas is responsible for much of TdA's growth and rapid expansion, first in Latin America and now in the United States.・He said it was Maduro.
Venezuelan violent group Torren de Aragua expands into one of America's most remote states
President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix/File)
Arocha defected to the United States from Venezuela in 2015 after being imprisoned for eight months by the Maduro regime. Since then, he said the situation has only worsened, with President Maduro asserting ever greater control over the region. Maduro maintained control of the country this year by winning a closely contested election that was widely believed to have been rigged.
“We also need to understand Torren de Aragua, TdA, which is a state-backed Maduro regime organization,” he said. “The real boss of Torren de Aragua is here.” caracas, venezuela. It's the Maduro regime. Because they created TdA and are using TdA as blackmail. [tool] under any circumstances. ”
Arocha said Maduro's dictatorship's counterintelligence agency, the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence, also known as DGCIM, is using TdA as a tool for asymmetric warfare, giving itself “plausible deniability.”
EX-ICE official warns that Toren de Aragua is growing among us faster than violent rival gangs: “Eliminate now!''
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado (AP Photo/Christian Hernandez/File)
Torren de Aragua first appeared on the scene of a crime in the United States when several gang members violently took over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Since then, the gang has committed a spate of violent attacks and gang-related crimes, including the high-profile murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia.
While some media reports portray TdA as a simple gang, Arrocha said the group is trained and enabled by the Venezuelan government and DGCIM to advance specific objectives and criminal ideologies. Ta. Even the name “Train from Aragua” attests to the group's intent to spread its ideology throughout the Western Hemisphere, he said.
Arocha said the Venezuelan government has already used TdA to inflict devastating crimes in neighboring countries and to support the creation of socialist-friendly governments in Colombia, Peru and Chile.
“They want to cause all kinds of turmoil in countries to shape the contours of borders and also create a sense of instability. [and] “First of all, they are exporting this kind of culture out of Venezuela,” he said. [to] Latin America, and now the United States.”
Immigrants entering the United States in Lukeville, Arizona. (Fox News/File)
Venezuelan national and Torren de Aragua gang member arrested in President Trump's backyard
Arocha said the Venezuelan government saw the historic migrant crisis under the Biden administration as a “huge opportunity” to “put down roots” in the United States. The regime further worsened the situation by temporarily lifting major oil sanctions it had previously imposed on President Maduro.
“Imagine, there are more or less 8 million Venezuelan immigrants. That's a huge number,” he says. “When you look at this, it's like a wall that's spreading across the state. And when you take into account the busing of immigrants from Texas to other states, they're spreading across the country like a disease, like a virus. spread across the country.
Arocha said that with Biden soon to be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, Trump must put the destruction of Torren de Aragua “at the top” of his list of priorities on day one. Mr. Arocha acknowledged the importance of closing the southern border, but said Mr. Torren de Aragua would simply return if the United States did not “contain” Mr. Maduro.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
President-elect Donald Trump (Alison Robert/Pool/File via AP)
“Imagine, OK, you take out everything in Tren de Aragua and send it [them] Venezuela or any other country. It will come back. That doesn't end the disease,” he said, “we have to fight the causes of TdA. The causes of TdA are the Maduro regime's desire to use this asymmetric means to harm the American people. It’s in the action.”
“The rule is not to give Mr. Maduro the ability to remain in Venezuela,” Arocha said. “What I'm saying is, if we're going to give President Maduro access to oil revenues and resources, we have to have TdA here in the United States.”
