Aragua’s Train, Plagued by Cocaine and Shootouts, Triggers Mass Exodus

Using WordPress tag format, this article is categorized with the following tags:
– venezuela-news
– organized-crime
– violence-in-venezuela
The New York Times recently published a report on a new trend in organized crime in Venezuela, featuring a deadly train hijacking that highlights the dangerous threat which has emerged in the country. On New Year’s Eve, a police commando traveled to the Venezuela-Colombia border aboard the Tren de Aragua to fight back against a group of heavily armed hijackers, who allegedly carried out the the brutal murder of at least 12 people during the robbery. Themove follows an investigation by Colombia that has identified the group as linked to the crime boss alias “Diego Rastrojo,” who is believed to be a member of a drug cartel and whose contact with security forces in Venezuela shows the extent of organized crime’s reach in the country. This train incident is just one in a string of violent crimes that have unfolded in Venezuela, including the deaths of six men in a gunfight between pirate traders in February. As the country continues to sink deeper into chaos due to hyperinflation, the rising aspect of organized crime and violence is a worrying sign for the future of the country.

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