Venezuela: Maduro Raid on VIP Prison Allowed Top Gang Leaders to Flee

CARACAS, Venezuela — Colombia, Peru, Chile, and other Latin American countries are on high alert after the escape of Héctor “the Child” Guerrero, the leader of Venezuela’s largest known criminal organization, the Tren de Aragua (“Aragua Train”).

Guerrero remains missing at press time since the socialist regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro orchestrated a raid on the notorious Tocorón prison last week, after years of neglect so extreme that Maduro’s regime allowed the Tren de Aragua to turn the complex into an amusement park featuring pools, nightclubs, and a zoo. Guerrero was serving a 17-year sentence at the site.

The Tren de Aragua chief is believed to have escaped along with some of his closest allies shortly before the raid. The Maduro regime has denied that Guerrero fled due to the raid, claiming that he “was already free” and on the run prior to the operation.

Guerrero, 39, was serving a 17-year prison sentence on multiple convictions of homicides, drug trafficking, and other charges issued in 2018. Guerrero is known to have been Tocorón’s pran, a slang title given to a prison leader who rules over the facility’s inmates under a pseudo-fiefdom system locally known as pranato (“pranate”).

Under Guerrero’s “pranate”, the prison had been transformed from the inside out, becoming the Tren de Aragua’s headquarters and center of operations, with its own nightclub, bank, pool, zoo, playgrounds, and even its own cryptocurrency farm. The Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), Maduro’s forces, provided exterior safeguarding of the facility while its inmates enjoyed the amenities.

The prison also housed an extensive firearms arsenal that the Maduro regime boasted of seizing. Guerrero reportedly had two houses built inside Tocorón, fully equipped with portable bathrooms, diesel power plants, satellite television, and exercise machines.

Following last week’s raid, which saw the Maduro regime deploy some 11,000 members of its security forces and even armored vehicles, Guerrero and his Luceros (the pran‘s second-in-command) were reported missing. Local media speculated that they had fled the prison through hidden tunnels that connected Tocorón with the nearby Lake Valencia.

“That person [Guerrero] was at liberty, in full freedom,” Venezuelan Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos told local media on Saturday. “As of today, he has several cases and an arrest warrant. We presume that he is somewhere, he was here. The point is that we are moving forward to capture everyone.”

Ceballos also denied reports suggesting Maduro had negotiated with the gang before raiding the prison. On Saturday, the Maduro regime officially issued a warrant for Guerrero and one of his closest allies, Josué Ángel Santana Peña, also known as “Santanita.”

In recent years, Tren de Aragua has managed to successfully spread its criminal activities beyond Venezuela and across other Latin America, establishing a confirmed presence in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and “possibly” the United States. The gang’s criminal activities range from homicide, theft, extortion, contraband, and kidnapping to drug, human, and arms trafficking. 

As Guerrero’s whereabouts are unknown, neighboring countries have heightened alerts over criminal activity. Colombia’s commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, Sandra Patricia Hernández, told local Colombian media on Saturday that they are working with Interpol given the possibility that Guerrero is in their national territory.

“We make it clear that the investigations continue with Interpol. We activated nine blue notices to capture alias ‘Kid Guerrero’ and other members of the Tren de Aragua,” Hernández said.  “We have already made 128 arrests and we have resumed territorial actions in the localities of Kennedy and Mártires. We will continue to prioritize these lines of investigation to try to identify the others involved in this structure.”

Blue notices are Interpol requests to find a person of interest in a crime. They are different and of lower urgency than red notices, which are issued for individuals suspected of criminal activity and request governments detain them if found.

Peru’s Interior Minister Vicente Romero told Radio Programas del Perú (RPP) on Sunday that he did not rule out the possibility that Guerrero may plan to enter Peru, adding that Peru’s National Police has been alerted.

“We are working on the matter. Immediately after we became aware of it, all the National Police have been alerted to be careful if this person enters the country,” Romero said. “He is under an international red notice order.”

Peru’s chief of police, Oscar Arriola, announced on Monday that the Peruvian government will offer a reward for information that could lead to Guerrero’s capture should he be present in Peruvian territory. Arriola also highlighted that Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru maintain official communications regarding Guerrero’s capture.

Similarly, Ecuador’s Interior Minister Juan Zapata told the local newspaper Expreso on Monday that the Ecuadorian government is taking “corresponding actions” to prevent Guerrero from entering Ecuador.

Chile has been the only country that has publicly ruled out Guerrero’s presence in their territory.

“Our police are alert, but we do not have any antecedents that allow us to affirm that the leader of the Tren de Aragua is in Chile,”  Chilean Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve said during a weekend press conference.

Venezuelan journalist Ronna Rísquez, who has investigated the Tren de Aragua for years, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) last week that the raid on Tocorón was “something that could happen at any moment,” reasoning that the operation would have been carried out after pressure from Colombia, Chile, Peru, which urged the Maduro regime to take measures after repeated denounces of the presence of the criminal organization in their territories.

Rísquez estimates that the Tren de Aragua has some 5,000 members spread across South America.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.