“The main link is in Caracas.”
Tren de Aragua is an aspect of Venezuela’s unrestricted warfare against the U.S., expert says
Jose Gustavo Arocha, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Venezuelan military and national security expert at Center for a Secure Free Society, responded for Fox News Digital on the recently released intelligence assessment on Tren de Aragua (TDA). Arocha says the memo, prepared by the National Intelligence Council on April 7 and made public on May 5, failed to comprehend the Maduro regime’s relationship with Tren de Aragua.
“I feel that the missing point, here, is that the intelligence report is just a narrow lens about TDA. It’s about crime and immigration, but they’re missing the warfare dimension,” Arocha said.
“They’re missing that, for the Maduro regime, the United States is the enemy — has been the enemy for years, since Hugo Chavez came to power.”
Arocha points out that the Tocorón prison, from which TDA’s leader Hector “Niño” Guerrero Flores and others reportedly escaped during a military operation to retain control of the prison from the inmates, is not a real prison but a “palace” serving as “the epicenter of crime in Venezuela.” When Tocorón was raided in September 2023, news reports revealed Tocorón’s swimming pool, nightclub, and even a zoo — as well as tunnels allowing inmates to pass in and out of the compound.
Arocha believes the raid was staged to convince the public that Maduro’s government was attempting to regain control of the prison.
“On the contrary, the TDA has safe haven in Venezuela,” he said.
“The TDA is not a gang. It’s a [military] arm of the Venezuelan regime in the hybrid warfare strategy. That’s the missing point. And that is the point that explains how a local gang [is] now in more than 10 countries, including the United States. That’s incredible. That is not possible without a state sponsor behind them.”
Arocha says the Venezuelan regime acts as a proxy of Russia, China and Iran — “especially China right now” — to create chaos in Latin America. He said the regime exploits Russian and Chinese expertise in propaganda, spinning a narrative that “the United States is against Latin America, is racist.”
According to Arocha, the U.S. intelligence community is failing to see the full picture.
“Unrestricted warfare,” Arocha said, “means using criminals, using disinformation, using every single tool they have” short of a direct military confrontation with the United States.
“We not only have to chase criminals, but start targeting command structures, which means nodes. That is very important right now,” Arocha said.
Arocha praised U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for pursuing a suspected high-ranking TDA leader in custody in Colombia. The Justice Department intends to prosecute Jose “Chuqui” Enrique Martinez Flores, 24, in Texas for drug offenses and for providing material support to a terrorist organization. The State Department designated TDA a foreign terrorist organization on Feb. 20.
Arocha also encouraged U.S. agencies to collaborate with law enforcement in Chile, Argentina, Peru and other countries with experience of TDA, to understand what they have learned.
“We have to continue targeting command structures to totally dismantle TDA,” Arocha said. “And not only see them as criminals. Of course, we have to chase criminals. But we also have to look for the command structures. And we have to put all the pieces together to have the big picture. And then I’m very sure that we are going to realize the missing and the main link is in Caracas.”