BOGOTA — The city of Bogota is one of the most beautiful in the world.Sitting at 8,600 ft. above sea level, the weather never gets really hot and places like Zona Rosa are packed with restaurants, cafes and shops.But according to locals, it is wracked by petty crime.It is nothing for someone to stop you on the street, point a gun at your head, and demand everything. Even in the so-called "safe" areas.Some vendors have even resorted to taking on hired guns — retired soldiers sporting weapons and camouflage gear keep a watchful eye on every movement.There is no official crime data for 2024, but the capital's mayor Carlos Galan recently said: "It is not a matter of perception... Bogota IS insecure."Locals will also tell you, that it's partly because Colombia opened its borders to Venezuela.Since then, crime has soared, especially petty crime.Prior to that border action, things were relatively good, as successive administrations made a point of targeting crime.According to locals, while some Venezuelans work in the city, many choose the easy path of crime to solve their economic issues.But enough, appears to be, enough.The Colombian government announced it is teaming up with the US Embassy to go after the Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization from Venezuela, El Pais reported.A reward program totalling up to US$12 million has been offered for “information leading to the arrests and/or convictions in any country” of Giovanny San Vicente, a.k.a. Giovanny; Yohan José Romero, a.k.a. Johan Petrica, and Héctor Guerrero Flores, a.k.a. Niño Guerrero.Besides the rewards, the Department of the Treasury designated Tren de Aragua as a significant transnational criminal organization, El Pais reported.“As a result, all property and interests in property of Tren de Aragua that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked,” said National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson. In addition to these actions, Spain extradited Gerson Guerrero, brother of the leader of the Tren de Aragua, El Pais reported.He had been arrested by Spain’s National Police last March in the city of Barcelona, and is accused of aggravated extortion, money laundering, criminal association, illicit trafficking of weapons and ammunition, terrorism and financing of terrorism.He faces a hefty possible sentence of 30 years in prison.In early July, Colombian police arrested Larry Amaury Álvarez, a.k.a. Larry Changa, one of Niño Guerrero’s associates. Larry Changa is believed to landed in Chile in 2018, where he set up businesses and helped the organization expand. His capture has raised expectations that he may provide information leading to the capture of the other leaders.The focus on this particular gang, is quite understandable — they have expanded in other countries, including the U.S.The governments of the region have been trying for months to stop the advance of this gang dedicated mainly to extortion, micro drug trafficking and migrant smuggling, leading to a rise in crime in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Its presence has also been reported in Argentina and the United States, particularly in New York City, El Pais reported. In New York, the gang has raised fears across the city, the New York Post reported.Robbers on mopeds snatching people’s phones from their hands and speeding off.In one especially brazen attack, moped-riding bandits dragged a 62-year-old woman down a Brooklyn street in December.After the phones are stolen, the victims’ bank accounts are drained of cash, with fraudulent transactions in both the US and South America, and the phones themselves are sent to Colombia to be wiped, reprogrammed and sold.Their violent practices have shocked even the most hardened in South America, particularly their willingness to kill women.Sources told The Post that the brutal Venezuelan “Tren de Aragua” gang has moved into New York by having its members cross the southern border and claim asylum, and is likely behind many of the moped robberies.It is the only new gang so far being tracked among the new migrant arrivals in the city, sources say.Ammon Blair, a former US Border Patrol agent and senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, said, “They go into local economies where there are Venezuelans and take over the criminal underground using excessive force.“They’ll start shooting prostitutes controlled by rival gangs and perform the executions live on social media in order to establish their presence.”The gang was organized between 2013 and 2015 in the state of Aragua, an industrial region of Venezuela, El Pais reported. At first its members dedicated themselves to the extortion of merchants and neighbors, then they ventured into kidnapping and drug trafficking, and became a transnational organization.Gang members began making their way from Venezuela to the southern US border in 2017, Blair told The Post.That year, there were nearly 2,800 “encounters” with Venezuelan migrants at the border, according to US Customs and Border Protection statistics.But from October 2022 to September 2023, more than 334,000 Venezuelans crossed the border — second only to 735,000 Mexicans — with Tren de Aragua playing a key part in trafficking many from Venezuela.“When they crossed the border into Colombia, they began to control everyone’s passage, charging fees to other Venezuelans to make the crossing,” said Robert Almonte, a security consultant and former US marshal in El Paso.Border Patrol agents apprehended 41 Tren de Aragua members crossing the border between October 2022 and September 2023, according to US Customs and Border Protection.The only signs that they belong to the ruthless group are tattoos featuring rifles and skulls, Almonte said — although they have started telling new members not to get tattoos in order to evade police.
