Violent deaths in Venezuela have plummeted to a 22-year low as criminals increasingly join the millions fleeing the broke socialist nation – many of them entering the US to pursue their own twisted version of the American dream.
Once deemed the world’s most dangerous city, Caracas has seen homicides fall by a staggering 25 percent when compared to 2023, with the Venezuelan Violence Observatory registering 26.8 violent deaths per 100,000 people, compared to a rate of 35.3 for every 100,000 habitants in 2022.
But now, as Venezuelans increasingly flood over the US-Mexico border, reports of newly-arrived migrants committing horrific crimes have left Americans shocked – including that of two men arrested in the brutal abduction, rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Texas just last week.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the oil-rich socialist regime is emptying its jails and sending violent felons to the US as he campaigns for a second term.
But security experts say the real reason is more likely that criminals and gangsters are now seeking to escape the bankrupt nation and go where the money is.
According to InsightCrime, the dire economic situation in the country, combined with the mass population exodus, has reduced opportunities for those looking to extort, kidnap and rob back home.
‘Crime is falling in Venezuela because of the destruction of the country’s economy …because of the loss of opportunities for crime,’ OVV director Roberto Briceño-León told InSight Crime.
While the government does not publish official data on crime, Venezuelan security official Remigio Ceballos Ichaso has claimed overall crime has dropped by 32 percent – without citing what kind of crime that figure included.
Jose Antonio Colina, founder of Veppex, an organization that advocates for Venezuelans who were persecuted by the nation’s regime, told DailyMail.com many of the recent arrivals accused of horrific crimes have never known democracy or the rule of law and are acting in the US as they were allowed to do back home.
‘Many of them are minors who are born and raised in a country where there is no justice or respect for the law,’ said the former Venezuela military officer, who has been exiled in Florida since 2003, when he was accused of conspiring against then-president Hugo Chavez.
‘These new migrants are proof that socialist Venezuela is a country that has failed – its society has rotten and it is now exporting thugs who think crime is just part of regular life.’
Many of the Venezuelans who have been accused of crimes in the US are indeed mostly young men, including several teenagers.
In February, 15-year-old Jesus Alejandro Rivas-Figueroa allegedly shot a tourist in the leg in Times Square before fleeing the scene and firing at two NYPD officers.
And earlier this month, Bernardo Raul Castro-Mata, 19, reportedly opened fire on two NYPD officers who tried to pull him over on his scooter, which had no tag.
Castro-Mata, who illegally entered the US at Eagle Pass, Texas last July, allegedly told police that he is part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and that engaging in gunfights with police is ‘common practice.’
‘Venezuelan police officers get shot often in my home country because criminals feel there is a chance of getting away,’ Mata allegedly told the NYPD after his arrest, also informing them that Tren de Aragua members are smuggling firearms into migrant shelters inside food delivery packages to dodge metal detectors.
The notorious gang has been referred to as ‘an invading criminal army’ by US lawmakers and a member is suspected of the brutal murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, has been charged with the murder of Riley, 19.
Venezuelan expat and writer Christian Caruzo, who has spent more than a decade trying and failing to migrate to the US with his brother legally, told DailyMail.com it’s been enraging to watch as the worst of his home country does manage to get into the US.
‘I was never able to find path that would allow us both in, and I abstained myself from doing anything illegal despite the sheer despair that I at times found myself drown in amidst all of what was going on in Venezuela,’ he said from Italy, where he managed to migrate with his brother.
Caruzo said he agrees with the assessment that the last two decades have fundamentally changed Venezuelan society, creating desperate citizens willing to do anything to survive.
‘Venezuela is a country that can easily turn anyone, men and women alike, into cruel people,’ Caruzo said. ‘That life, sadly, is the only thing a lot of Venezuela’s youth have only known — which, in no way, justifies it whatsoever, though.’
Caruzo has been following news of Venezuelans committing crimes in the US, and says they are doing the same crimes that millions of Venezuelans have left to escape.
He added: ‘The crimes are very much in the same style to what we are used to seeing in Venezuela. Robberies, cops getting shot, and passersby getting caught in the crossfire is the bread and butter in Venezuela.
‘It is extremely likely that any Venezuelan will say the same, because either you’ve been a direct victim of it, your family members have, or someone you know has, in some way, been a victim of crimes of that nature.
‘That kind of insecurity is one of the reasons that have driven nearly eight million now out of the country, and that’s without factoring in the regime’s oppressive hand and institutionalized repression, which is a whole other gargantuan beast of its own.’
Unlike its neighbors in Latin America, Venezuelans have not traditionally been a migrant culture – in 1990, there were just 42,000 Venezuelans in the US, compared to 282,000 Colombians.
Venezuelans began leaving their country in significant numbers in 2000, just a year after Hugo Chavez’ election, as the nation’s wealthiest feared nationalizations and socialist policies to come, as reported by Caracas Chronicles.
The US is currently seeing a third wave of new arrivals from Venezuela, which started in 2017, and has seen the country’s poorest and most desperate travel from their homes to the US-Mexico border on foot, crossing into central America through the perilous Darien Gap.
Along with the millions of innocent migrants, criminals including professional gangsters have also managed to make their way into the US, and have been making headlines in recent months.
The gangsters have used the migration wave to hide among legitimate asylum seekers – over 334,000 Venezuelans crossed the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023 – second only to Mexicans.
‘They go into local economies where there are Venezuelans and take over the criminal underground using excessive force,’ former Border Patrol Agent Ammon Blair told the New York Post. ‘They’ll start shooting prostitutes controlled by rival gangs and perform the executions live on social media in order to establish their presence.’
The political and economic crisis has forced more than 7.7million people to leave the nation since 2014- even more than Ukrainians and Syrians.
It’s a rare case of massive migration from a country that is not at war but has seen one of the most extreme fortune reversals in recent history after the socialist takeover 25 years ago.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, after a series of crimes allegedly committed by Venezuelans, made a point of saying the majority of Venezuelan asylum seekers who have entered the country over the last years have followed the law.
However, the high-profile crimes committed by Venezuelans are damaging the reputation of law-abiding Venezuelans, Veppex founder Colina told DailyMail.com.
‘They are not only damaging the US, but also affecting Venezuelans who live here, especially those who have been here for a while.
‘In Veppex we are asking that Venezuelans who commit crimes face the maximum weight of the law so they serve as an example so those who are coming here understand they can’t act like there are no laws here, as they did in Venezuela.
‘And they cant come here and stain the good reputation of those who have proven to be productive members of US society.’