Update: A September 15 New York Times story reports that stories of gun-toting Venezuelan migrants taking over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, are false. However, the story also reports:
- Regarding a viral video showing armed men storming an Aurora apartment building, the Times says, “The incident was reported as a connection to gang violence, particularly the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, though documentation was scarce.”
- The company that owns the apartments, CBZ, through its public relations agent, told the media that, “An apartment building and its owners in Aurora, Colorado have become the most recent victims of the Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua’s violence, which has taken over several communities in the Denver area. The residents and building owners of these properties have been left in a state of fear and chaos.”
- The Times story claims this is “a false story, fueled by real problems,” namely that the CBZ apartments have descended into squalor and the city has been fighting to get them cleaned up. The story quotes a resident as saying many there are squatters. The article also says Aurora officials have indicated there are “criminal elements” in the apartment buildings, but not widespread gang activity.
- Recently Aurora police arrested 10 Tren de Aragua gang members on an array of charges including felony menacing, attempted first-degree murder, assault, child abuse, and domestic abuse. In the Times story, there was no mention as to whether these gang members were residents of the Aurora apartments that received so much media attention; however, according to a police report, some of the crimes were committed at CBZ-owned Fitzsimons Place apartments, which the city of Aurora recently closed due to code violations.
Separately, the Aurora mayor and a council member issued a statement that included this comment about Tren de Aragua (TdA):
“As for the perception and reality of public safety in Aurora, please understand that issues experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole or large portions of it. TdA has not ‘taken over’ the city. The overstated claims fueled by social media and through select news organizations are simply not true. Again, TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months.”
Original story continues below.
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A woman who owns a business adjacent to an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex where residents are shaken by Venezuelan gang activity said she has been forced to put up bulletproof glass to protect her business, describing the chaos in her community caused by migrants.
In an interview with Breitbart New Daily host Mike Slater, the woman said, “It’s horrible. Mike, I run a business right adjacent to that apartment complex.” She described the current situation as “overwhelming.”
“It’s out of control. Denver is just a sanctuary city. They’re just, they’re just flooding them into the smaller communities. Now they’re busing them out here. They’re busing them to our smaller communities, and their hotels are being overrun out here. And it’s just chaos, just chaos,” the caller, identified as Pam, said, explaining that they have been in business for ten years, running a gas station.
Before the migrant crisis, she described the neighborhood as one in the middle, not the best, but not the worst, either.
“You know, it was fairly quiet community. You know, you had your problems. You know, you had your shoplifters, but since this has become more and more, they just come in and grab and run and you know, we’ve been forced to put bulletproof glass up into our business since this has all started,” she said.
LISTEN:
“It’s just become worse and worse and worse. We can no longer stay open late at night. You know, they had an issue not too long ago where they forced almost all the businesses on the street to shut down. I believe was at night of the elections that happened over in Venezuela that they shut down everything,” she said, explaining that they could not even get around to their vehicles.
“We just had to shut the store,” she said, explaining that there were so many migrants flooding the parking lots and streets that they could not move, describing it as “chaos.”
Further, Pam said they have had a lot of “dashing in and grabbing and taking off with full, you know, racks of stuff.”
“We’ve been robbed a couple of times,” she said, noting that they have a car wash that migrants will break into and stay in overnight.
“It’s like, I said, it’s just sheer chaos. It’s like, you know, there’s no help from anywhere, you know. And our own governor just denies that this is happening,” she said of Colorado’s Democrat Governor Jared Polis, who is in denial of the problem.
“I challenge him to come stay a night out in this apartment complex. You know, I don’t think he would, actually, don’t think he would, you know, he you know, like I said, we’re hoping for change in November, I would love to see Colorado go back to be a red state again. It’s a beautiful state. It’s sad what’s happening here,” she said, emphasizing they are holding on to hope for November.
“You know, change is coming. That’s what we’re holding on for. In the meantime, we just keep going every day because, you know who’s going to buy a business that’s, you know, in this area,” she added.
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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.