The U.S. State Department declared on Feb. 20, 2025, that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, in addition to some Mexican drug cartels, are now considered foreign terrorist organizations.
Is the brand new label warranted?
Tren de Aragua is on the heart of a controversial immigration case that the Supreme Court is going to consider.
The Trump administration is using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify deporting more than 100 of the 238 Venezuelan and Salvadoran male immigrants it despatched to a jail in El Salvador on March 15. The administration says that these immigrants are members of gangs such as Tren de Aragua and are overseas enemies, to allow them to be despatched away with simply an order from the White Home.
The administration makes use of a checklist of items, together with bodily markers like tattoos, to find out these people’ affiliation with Tren de Aragua. Though in actuality, the Tren de Aragua gang members don’t use any particular tattoos.
Members of the family and attorneys representing some of the Venezuelan immigrants say that they are not actually associated with the gang, and that a few of them have been living in the U.S. legally.
I’m an knowledgeable on immigration, and I believe it is very important perceive why classifying Tren de Aragua as a overseas terrorist group has sparked debate among observers.
One essential motive is that Tren de Aragua is primarily a profit-driven group, not an ideological one – putting the group extra firmly within the transnational organized crime class fairly than a political terrorist group.
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Understanding Tren de Aragua
Tren de Aragua originated as a small prison gang within the early 2000s inside Tocorón jail in Venezuela’s state of Aragua, situated close to the nation’s capital, Caracas.
Over the previous 25 years, Tren de Aragua has expanded quickly throughout South and Central America, and advanced right into a transnational prison group beneath the management of Hector Guerrero Flores. Also referred to as Niño Guerrero, Flores is a 41-year-old Venezuelan who first served time in Tocorón prison in 2010 for killing a police officer earlier than he escaped for the primary time in 2012. His present location will not be recognized.
Flores is needed by the U.S. and Colombia for various crimes associated to increasing the group’s prison community all through South and Central America.
At present, an estimated 5,000 persons are affiliated with Tren de Aragua, which is principally centered on human trafficking and different crimes focusing on migrants. The gang has additionally been linked to different prison organizations in Latin America and is involved with extortion, kidnapping, cash laundering and drug smuggling. The variety of lively members in america is within the low a whole lot, and clearly the good majority of Venezuelans right here should not members.
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Totally different finish objectives
Tren de Aragua has expanded partly due to its capability to take advantage of weak governance throughout the state of Aragua, and finally throughout Venezuela, which faces political instability and a weak economic system. An enlargement past Venezuela has allowed the gang to attach with different transnational prison networks.
Most accepted definitions of terrorism say it’s a kind of violence, often used towards civilians, motivated by political and ideological beliefs and objectives. Tren de Aragua doesn’t match that definition. It doesn’t have a political ideology and due to this fact will not be an precise terrorist group.
The U.S. authorities considers a foreign terrorist organization a overseas group that engages in terrorist exercise, or plans to take action, in a method that threatens the safety of U.S. nationals or the nation extra broadly.
Tren de Aragua is among the many eight groups that the State Department first categorised as overseas terrorist organizations in the first few months of 2025 after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The opposite new teams placed on the listing primarily embody Latin American drug trafficking organizations, just like the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
Whereas transnational prison organizations and overseas terrorist organizations each have interaction in violence and illicit actions, their finish objectives are totally different.
International terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group search political, spiritual or ideological change – or all three – as they attempt to use violence to reshape the political panorama of their areas.
Terrorist teams and transnational prison organizations should not the identical
Tren de Aragua, in addition to different transnational criminal groups like MS-13 – which originated in Los Angeles however now operates all through the Americas – and the Sinaloa cartel, perform unlawful, violent actions throughout borders with the intention to generate profits.
These teams would not have political or ideological motives past creating situations to maximise their very own earnings. They don’t intention to take political energy within the U.S. or elsewhere, or attempt to remake society in their very own picture. That’s past their purview and capabilities.
Correctly distinguishing between terrorist organizations and transnational prison organizations is essential for devising efficient insurance policies and responses to their violence. Mislabeling these teams can result in inappropriate responses corresponding to placing apart civil liberties, due course of and human rights.
Incorrectly classifying Tren de Aragua and different prison teams as terrorist organizations may shift U.S. overseas coverage and sources towards counterterrorism efforts and away from lowering the ability and violence exercised by organized crime and drug cartels in lots of elements of Latin America.
Nevertheless, the way in which during which many Venezuelans and different immigrants have been deported from the country over the past few months with out passing via immigration courtroom appears to point that the principle rationale for the discuss alien enemies and these terrorist designations is to help within the purpose of mass deportations, fairly than to combat home or worldwide terrorism.
If the U.S. really desires to curb undocumented immigration and cut back drug and human trafficking, then I consider that it ought to be sure that its classification of those organizations is correct and aligned with its precise targets.
Melissa Vasquez, a graduate pupil at American College finding out worldwide affairs and the Northern Triangle in Central America, contributed to this piece.
