Donald Trump will designate a Venezuelan criminal gang as “global terrorists,” an incoming administration official told reporters Monday, as part of the US president-elect’s fight against illegal immigration into the United States.
Citing Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and Salvadoran gang MS-13, the official said the incoming administration would designate the criminal cartels and other entities as both multinational organizations and global terrorists.
“This invasion has caused widespread chaos and suffering in our country over the last four years,” the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration will also declare that Tren de Aragua is an “irregular army force” of Venezuela, whose leftist leader Nicolas Maduro has long been a foe of the United States and whose latest election was considered illegitimate by the opposition and numerous foreign observers.
Tren de Aragua has for years been a powerful criminal gang in Venezuela, operating partly out of prisons and participating in human smuggling and drug trafficking, according to US officials.
The group has increasingly expanded across the Western Hemisphere including the United States as economic chaos under Maduro fuels a migrant crisis that has prompted millions of Venezuelans to flee.
