Join Fox News to access this content
Plus, use your account to get special access to selected articles and other premium content – free.
By entering your email to continue, you agree to Fox News Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This includes notifications of financial incentives.
Please enter a valid email address.
Are there any problems? click here.
A former Venezuelan military official has challenged a recent report by the US Intelligence Reporting Agency about the massive Tren de Aragua gangs that exist all over the country.
Jose Arocha, a former lieutenant colonel for the Venezuelan army, told Fox News Digital that the recent Inter Community Report, which denied Tren de Aragua, was linked to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Also known simply as TDA, Tren de Aragua is a violent Venezuelan gang that has terrorized American cities over the past few years. The group is linked to high-profile murders, including the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, and seizures throughout an apartment in Aurora, Colorado.
President Donald Trump, one of his first moves to return to his elliptical office, directed the State Department to designate the TDA as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
The Supreme Court allows Trump administrators to end legal protections for some Venezuelan immigrants
Jose Arocha, former Lieutenant Colonel of the Venezuelan Army (via the safe free society of the El Salvador Press Presidential Office/Getty Images and the Center)
Through Fox News Digital and Zoom, Arocha, a national security expert at the Center for Secure Freedom and Society, said he agreed to the Trump administration’s move against Tren de Aragua.
“The Maduro administration doesn’t need to send troops to America. They’ll send criminals instead,” he said. “TDA is a plug-and-play rebellion, assembled into prisons and deployed overseas.”
However, Arocha’s statement contrasted with a new public memo released last month by the US intelligence reporting agency, denying a strong connection between the Maduro government in Caracas and the gang.
“While Venezuela’s tolerant environment could lead to TDA operation, the Maduro administration probably has no policy of working with the TDA and has not directed the TDA movement and operation of the US,” the report said.
The report states that the intelligence report community is based on conclusions about the actions of Venezuela law enforcement agencies, indicating that the administration treats TDA as a threat, not a top-down direction, but a disturbing combination of cooperation and conflict. [that] Characterizes regime relations as other armed groups. And TDA’s decentralized makeup that challenges such relationships logistically. ”
Meanwhile, Arocha said, “The missing point here is that the intelligence report is too narrow for TDA.”
“It’s about crime and migration, but they lack the war aspect,” he said. “They miss the fact that the US is the enemy and for years to be the enemy for the Maduro administration.”
Violent Venezuelan gangs leverage technology to turbocharge their advantage: experts
President Nicholas Maduro (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
“TDA is not a gang,” he continued. “It’s the enabler division of the Venezuelan administration in hybrid strategy, asymmetric war tours. That’s the point that’s missing. That’s the point that explains how local gangs are believed in more than 10 countries, including the US.
The report points to law enforcement actions taken by the Maduro government against the TDA, but Arocha explained that in reality, Venezuelan prisons, including the “Tokoron” prison where gangs began, are similar to resort hotels.
“Tokoron, [which] They said it was the epicenter of Venezuela’s crime, not a prison, but a palace of organized crime. There is complete equipment, a zoo, a nightclub, and even a pool for prisoners,” he said.
Arocha also raided that the Venezuelan government, which took place in Tocolon in 2023, was “choreographed,” assaulting the main TDA leadership could escape through pre-built tunnels.
“The administration acquired a criminal optics, but TDA mobility remained the same,” Arocha told Fox News Digital.
11 Teen Tren de Aragua Gang Member Attacks NYPD Officer: Police
This image shows two Tren de Aragua gang members caught at the southern border. (US Border Patrol)
The Intel report acknowledged that the fleeing TDA members “maybe they are being supported by Venezuelan military and political leaders.” But for Arocha, the connection goes straight up.
He pointed out the inviting and murder of Chilean Venezuela’s political opposition Ronald Ojeda. According to Reuters, the Chilean government is being investigated as Operation Tren de Aragua sponsored by the Maduro government.
For immigration compensation, click here
Chilean Attorney General Angel Valencia said in March that Ojeda’s murder “has no character of a normal crime,” and that “we can conclude that all the evidence we have in this investigation is related to Tren de Lagua, which is derived from an order of politically motivated.
The outlet also reported that the Venezuelan government denied the charges as baseless.
Arocha also pointed to former Vice President Maduro Tarek El Aisami, who claims to link Hamas to Hezbollah as evidence that the Venezuelan government is embedded in America’s worst enemy.
Venezuelan illegal foreigner, leader of California’s Tren de Aragua, has been arrested on immigration charges
In this handout photo provided by the Salvador government, the guard escorts a prisoner allegedly linked to CECOT’s criminal organization in Tecolca, El Salvador, on March 16, 2025. (The Salvador government via Getty Images)
El Aisami was arrested on corruption charges and is currently in prison.
“He has strong influence on Iran, China and Russia too. Now he is in prison, meaning he lives in the prison palace,” Arocha said with a smile.
“The Venezuelan regime is the current proxy for Russia, China, Iran, and especially China,” he continued. “They use Venezuela [to] It causes confusion, especially in Latin America… Rather than face the US directly, it uses criminals indirectly, using disinformation, all the tools. ”
Click here to get the Fox News app
In response, Arocha urged the Trump administration to continue taking a government-wide approach in the fight against TDA. He urged the administration to “increase our scope” by reaching out to Latin American countries with experience with TDAs, including the Chilean government.
“They have knowledge of TDA now. We have to understand what they’ve learned, and we have to put together all the pieces to have a big picture rather than a local one,” he said. “And we are shortage and we are sure we will notice that the main link is in Caracas.”
Anders Hagstrom from Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
Source link
