2024-07-21 05:01:00
Who would have thought that a foreign criminal would have so much influence in the Colombian underworld that the authorities would assign him a reward similar to that of the great leaders of today. Venezuelan Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero”, The shameful figure of US$5 million is already on his shoulders for information leading to his arrest, as well as the persecution of several governments who see him as a serious threat to the security of the continent.
It is the reward sponsored by the US State Department, in collaboration with the Colombian Police, which has this criminal on its list of high-value strategic targets, especially because of the wave of extortion and homicide that his organization, the “Tren de Aragua”, is generating in Bogotá since 2022.
Five million dollars was the same reward assigned at the time to Dairo Úsuga David (“Otoniel”), leader of the Gulf Clan; Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco (“Valenciano”), head of “the Office”; Daniel Barrera Barrera (“el Loco”), head of the Drug Trafficking Board of Directors; Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry (“Timochenko”), former FARC commander; and the brothers Luis Antonio and Javier Enrique Calle Serna (“los Combas”), leaders of “los Rastrojos”, among others.
To compare him to today’s criminal, remember that for Jobanis de Jesús Ávila Villadiego (“Chiquito Malo”), the new leader of Clan del Golfo, the same State Department put US$ 1.2 million on the table in September last year.
The reward package is also aimed at the main lieutenants of “Niño Guerrero”: US$4 million to Yohan José Romero (“Yohan Petrica”), co-founder of the band; and US$3 million to Giovanny San Vicente (“Giovanny”)the third in command.
How did these characters become as much or more than local criminals in the organizational charts of the security agencies of Colombia and the United States?
The origin of the bond
The reviews made by several non-governmental organizations in Venezuela indicate that the criminal gang emerged between 2006 and 2007, due to the interconnection of three phenomena: the increasing crime, the result of the ineffective presence of the Public Force; unemployment, which began to increase during the regime of President Hugo Chávez; and the failure of the Government to comply with the construction of the Aragua Train, a railway project that promised to bring development and employment opportunities to that region.
Some former members of that white elephant union joined the neighborhood bandits to seek career options in crime, and They began to live by extortion, robberies and pimping.
When many of them ended up in Tocorón prison, in the southern State of Aragua, they took advantage of the weakness of the prison system to strengthen themselves.
At that time, the prisons of Venezuela were dominated by “pranes”, equivalent to “caciques” in Colombia, That is, a big fish that rules prison life at will, imposing order with an iron whip.
In Tocorón, “Niño Guerrero” was the “pran”, who was imprisoned for crimes such as homicide, theft and illegal possession of weapons. From that pint-sized center he succeeded in consolidating the “Aragua Train”, increasing the number of members inside and outside, until cells were installed in six states, and expanding the organization’s criminal offer to hitman services, drug trafficking, human trafficking , Pagadiario. , smuggling, illegal mining, kidnapping and arms trafficking, among others.
Foreign security agencies are suspicious of certain activities, The Chavista regime hired these services to carry out “black operations”.outside the law, which allowed him to capture income from the underworld amid the financial asphyxiation caused by White House sanctions.
In return, the “Tren de Aragua” had a kind of carte blanche to expand its networks without further opposition, using Tocorón as their headquarters.
“Niño Guerrero” lived there in conditions similar to those he liked andDrug trafficker Pablo Escobar in La Catedral prison, Envigado.
They had two houses with luxuries inside the prison, such as a gym and satellite TV; He brought in weapons, harlots and liquor when he felt like it; and he held meetings with family members, lieutenants and even politicians who came to ask him for a favor.
“Niño Guerrero” established a mafia hierarchy with top leadership and regional coordinators, among them were “Yohan Petrica”, “Giovanny”, “Larry Changa” and “El Salomón”.
The structure went from being a jail cell to a “mega gang”, as they say in the neighboring country with organizations that have more than 200 members and influence in several states. And it didn’t stop.
Continental expansion
Paradoxically, its period of expansion and prosperity coincided with the impoverishment and exile of the Venezuelan population.
As the migrant diaspora increased, reaching almost 8 million uprooted people, according to the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V), the “Aragua Train” was consolidating its businesses on the continent, especially in some cities in Colombia, Peru and Chile.
“Aragua Train takes advantage of the transnational networks it has developed to traffic people, especially migrant women and girls, across borders, for sexual exploitation and forced labor. When the victims try to escape from this exploitation, the members of the ‘Aragua Train’ They usually kill them and publicize their death as a threat to others“, reported the United States Treasury Department, which announced on July 11 economic sanctions against this group and the assets and properties belonging to its members.
The report from that institution states that “as the ‘Aragua Train’ has expanded, it has infiltrated the criminal economies of South America in a timely manner, established transnational financial operations, laundered funds through cryptocurrencies and established links with it. First Capital Command, a known organized crime group from Brazil, sanctioned by the United States.”
The mega-gang established centers of operations in Lima and Santiago de Chile, with sex exploitation, extortion and drug trafficking businesses. The damage is so great that the governments of those countries have offered rewards against “Niño Guerrero” and his people.
In the words of Brian Nelson, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence of the Treasury, “the designation of the ‘Tren de Aragua’ as a significant Transnational Criminal Organization is emphasized. the increased threat it represents to the American people.”
International pressure against the apparent apathy of Nicolás Maduro’s government forced the president to act against the “Aragua Train”. on September 20, 2023, 11,000 soldiers and police took possession of Tocorón prison, that is. with his mission to dismantle the group’s command center, but they got a surprise very similar to those of the Colombian authorities who raided La Catedral in 1992: “Niño Guerrero” and his main associates were no longer there.
Is he hiding in Colombia?
Héctor Guerrero’s escape sparked alarm on the continent. A week later, the Court of Pozo Almonte, a neighboring municipality of Santiago de Chile, issued an arrest warrant against him, because There were rumors that one of the “Aragua Train” had traveled to that area.
The Chilean Police set up an operation in customs and border crossing areas, spreading information about “Niño Guerrero” and 43 other members of the mega-gang, trying to prevent their mobilization.
Interpol, in addition, he issued a Red Circular.
The authorities then received information that he was allegedly in Peru and the Minister of the Interior, Vicente Romero, announced a reward of 500,000 coins (about US$132,000) for information leading to his capture.
The latest investigations would indicate that he is now in Colombia, or at least that’s what the US Police and the US State Department believe.
“Through cooperation with the National Police, the United States believes that the leaders of the ‘Aragua Train’, ‘Niño Guerrero’ and ‘Giovanny’, are in Colombia. The investigative and intelligence services also identified the co-founder of the ‘Aragua Train’, ‘Yohan Petrica’, as another leader who is in Venezuela,” the US Embassy in Bogotá reported last week.
In our country, the mega-gang has active cells in Cúcuta, Aguachica (Cesar), Ipiales (Nariño), Bogotá and Soacha (Cundinamarca), although criminal acts – such as homicides and kidnapping – were also known in Medellín, Bucaramanga and Arauca.
In some areas it clashed with the Clan del Golfo (Bogotá), the ELN (Norte de Santander) and FARC dissidents (Arauca), while in other areas it formed alliances with local groups, ie like the “Satanás” gang on the soil of Bogotá and the “AK-47” in Cucuta and its surroundings.
Several of its coordinators have already fallen on this side of the border so far in 2024. On May 2, Carlos Ramón Escobar García (“Escobar”) was arrested in Bogotá; on June 19, in Belén, Boyacá, to Yonayke Martínez Carrión (“the Barber”); On June 26 it was the turn of Salomón Fernández Torres (“the Salomón”) in Aguazul, Casanare; and on June 30, in Circasia, Quindío, the curator was Larry Amaury Álvarez Núñez (“Larry Changa”), one of the founders of the faction.
According to General William Salamanca, director of the Police, so far 79 alleged members of the “Aragua Train” were arrested.
However, the alleged presence of “Niño Guerrero” in Colombia raises suspicions among the police and Organized Crime prosecutors themselves. “Why is he hiding here, where the DEA, HSI, ICE, FBI and other American federal agencies are, knowing that he is in Venezuela protected by a sector of the Government?” asked one of the prosecutors consulted by that newspaper.
Others said that no one gives US$5 million without some certainty. “The most likely thing is that he will leave Colombia again with so much money on his head,” said a police agent.
The truth is that such rewards encourage investigators to pursue him, wherever he may be. Could it be that “Niño Guerrero” dug his own grave when he escaped from prison?
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