The Tren de Aragua, one of Venezuela’s most violent criminal organizations, is rapidly expanding its influence throughout the Americas, stretching its tentacles further north to Mexico and the United States. Its impact, which compromises regional stability and security, has led Mexican authorities to strengthen alliances with international partners to contain this surging threat.
“This forces us to reconsider the configuration of criminal networks, the direct impact on local communities, and how this problem transcends, affecting not only the security of individuals and localities, but also that of states at the hemispheric level,” Yadira Gálvez, a security expert and an academic at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Diálogo in a January 2025 interview.
This gang, which traces its origins to Venezuelan prisons, has a wide criminal portfolio and engages in extortion and drug, arms, and human trafficking. In northern Mexico, for instance, the Tren de Aragua collaborates with local cartels in human trafficking, several news media reported. The criminal organization has advanced throughout Latin America with the Nicolás Maduro regime’s tacit consent, terrorizing Chile, Colombia, and Peru with kidnappings, murders, sexual exploitation, and torture. According to Mexican daily Milenio, this criminal organization competes with Mexican cartels in illicit activities along the border with the United States.
The expansion of the Tren de Aragua represents one of the greatest challenges for the region, Gálvez said. Due to its characteristics, operating methods, and illicit activities, strengthening international cooperation, intelligence exchange, and developing trust networks among institutions and actors in charge of combating this threat is critically important, she added.
Unity against the Venezuelan terror group
On February 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of State officially designated the Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), marking a major escalation in the international effort to target the group. This move was quickly followed by other nations, including Canada, Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Months priors, in October 2024, the Secretary of Public Security (SSPE) of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, Gilberto Loya Chávez, announced the creation of a special unit to combat the dangerous organization, which operates throughout the country and has established alliances with gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha, Barrio 18, and Los Bravos de Colombia.
Across South America, national security forces have ramped up specific counter-Tren de Aragua operations. Chilean authorities, in particular, secured convictions and hefty sentences in 2025 against dozens of Tren de Aragua members, dismantling key structures like the “Los Gallegos” cell. In Peru, the National Police has conducted major joint operations, leading to dozens of arrests and the rescue of human trafficking victims from Tren de Aragua networks. These local, proactive measures are complemented by the training received by specialized agents from countries across the region, including the new unit in Chihuahua, Mexico, that combat similar challenges daily.
“The positive thing is to observe how, at the local and state level, an authority manages to identify the operation of this criminal organization. However, illicit activities of a transnational nature necessarily demand close cooperation between Mexico and the United States,” Gálvez said, stressing the need for a joint approach.
The United States has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to Mexico to counter arms, drugs, and human trafficking. Collaboration was formally strengthened in September 2025 when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Mexican counterparts convened the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Security Implementation Group. This high-level mechanism was established to coordinate actions aimed at dismantling narcoterrorist groups and halting the flow of fentanyl and illicit drugs, among others.
“The Tren de Aragua is a common threat, which demands urgent attention, international cooperation, and the integration of local efforts,” said Gálvez. “In Mexico, organized crime is a federal issue, but as we broaden the perspective to hemispheric security, it is imperative that Mexico and the United States work together with strategic countries in Central and South America.”
South America
The expansion of the Tren de Aragua has sparked violence in South America. In Chile, the gang has engaged in sexual exploitation and murders. Chilean prosecutors have accused the terror group of participating in the February 2024 assassination of Venezuelan military dissident Ronald Ojeda, alleging the murder was a politically motivated act of transnational repression ordered by high-ranking officials in the Maduro regime, including Diosdado Cabello, Maduro’s current minister of Interior, Justice and Peace. In Peru, it is linked to brutal homicides. In Colombia, which has become a key stronghold for its criminal operations, the Tren de Aragua has diversified its activities from cell phones theft and sales to controlling prostitution networks.
This terror group capitalizes on local criminal economies in South America, strategically inserting itself. It also develops transnational financial operations, laundering money through cryptocurrencies, and has forged alliances with groups such as the First Capital Command (PCC), Brazil’s largest criminal network.
New strategy
In Mexico, members of the Tren de Aragua have been removing tattoos (crowns, roses, weapons, felines, grenades, and phrases such as “Son of God” or “Real until death”) to avoid being identified as gang members, Telemundo reported in 2024.
“On the issue of tattoos, there are important lessons learned. The maras in El Salvador and Honduras adapted their symbolism of belonging to evade authorities,” Gálvez said. “It wouldn’t be surprising if members of the Trend de Aragua were to adopt similar strategies, adjusting their visual identity to go unnoticed.”
“It is essential that the Secretariat for Multidimensional Security and the Department against Transnational Organized Crime of the OAS [Organization of American States] promote spaces for training and cooperation. It is also necessary to strengthen regional, subregional, and bilateral forums, to prevent lack of coordination from allowing these organizations to expand their field of action and continue operating without restrictions,” Gálvez concluded.
Note: This article is a revised and updated version of a report originally published in January 2025.
