Bogotá horrified by bundled our bodies, victims of gangs

For the reason that starting of the 12 months, the victims of a vendetta between gangs of Venezuelan origin have been discovered right here and there in Bogota, their corpses wrapped in plastic luggage, some dismembered. The affair of the “packaged”, because the native press calls it, is of a violence by no means seen earlier than within the Colombian capital.

In 9 months, no less than 23 our bodies in luggage have been deserted right here and there within the streets of this metropolis of eight million inhabitants. These macabre discoveries went crescendo to culminate in horror final week: 4 our bodies, minimize into items, discovered deserted, wrapped in rubbish luggage, on sidewalks. Seven Venezuelans and 9 Colombians are amongst these victims, in response to the press.

Violence “by no means seen”

It’s “a approach of working that has by no means been seen earlier than within the metropolis”, in response to the commander of the Bogota police, Normal Carlos Triana.

These are “violent homicides, strangulations, (murders) with firearms or knives”, declared the secretary of safety for the municipality, Anibal Fernandez de Soto, who speaks of acts carried out with “plenty of cruelty”.

These macabre discoveries had been made in eight of the 19 localities of a capital theater of organized crime, however which stays nonetheless spared by the armed battle raging for greater than half a century within the provinces.

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A battle for visitors management

These murders testify to the cruel battle that a number of felony teams are waging “for the management of illicit trafficking”, specifically the sale of medication at retail and extortion, explains Anibal Fernandez de Soto, who warns that this battle is within the strategy of “intensify”.

El Tren de Aragua, a transnational felony group born in Venezuela, in addition to one other Venezuelan gang, Los Maracuchos, and a 3rd group whose title has not been disclosed are the protagonists of this extraordinary violence.

Assist from Mexican criminals?

The police thus confirmed the existence within the capital of “slaughterhouses” serving as locations of torture. In line with Anibal Fernandez de Soto, the victims are all members of the warring gangs. “They intimidate (their rivals) with a macabre modus operandi.”

In line with the newspaper Timea “Mexican mafia cell”, near the Sinaloa cartel, completes the bloodthirsty trio. The press additionally quoted as one other protagonist a Colombian group, “Los Paisas”.

A clan with worldwide ramifications

Since 2021, authorities have been monitoring the rising presence of Tren de Aragua in Bogota, the place a few quarter of the 1.8 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia dwell.

This feared gang, with worldwide tentacles, entered the nation by way of the border division of Norte de Santander. At first, says Jeremy McDermott, co-director of organized crime assume tank InSight Crime, they “took management of the territory alongside the border and charged tolls from Venezuelans who crossed on the unlawful trails (trochas).

Following the wave of migration fleeing Chavista Venezuela, they set foot in Colombia “so far as Panama and Chile, charging ‘safety’ charges and making an attempt to take advantage of or recruit susceptible migrants,” provides the knowledgeable. Their presence is reported in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

“It is a highly effective group”, one of many essential brains of which is Hector “Niño” Guerrero, incarcerated within the Venezuelan jail of Tocorón, notes Ronna Risquez, researcher on armed teams and violence. He would reign supreme over his fellow prisoners. “Every thing is managed from Tocorón,” says Ronna Risquez.

A follow discovered in jail

Dismemberment is a typical follow in Venezuelan prisons, in response to criminologist Mario Mármol. “They’ve this coaching, this evil character trait, and when the scenario warrants it, they implement it: mutilation, decapitation, our bodies riddled with bullets. It is their trademark.”

The brutality demonstrated in Colombia responds to “the long-standing felony expertise” on this nation, which “requires plenty of pressure, impression and demonstration of this cruelty” to prevail, notes Roberto Briceño-León, director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV).

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The opposite gang is extra discreet

Extra discreet than Tren de Aragua, Los Maracuchos arrived in Colombia in 2019. Colombian police captured ten of their alleged members this week and are claiming by Interpol 5 others who fled to Venezuela.

These sordid murders involving Venezuelans coincide with the restoration of diplomatic relations between the 2 nations, however might complicate this warming.

Additionally they eclipse safety figures in Bogota, which immediately has the bottom murder charge amongst Colombia’s main cities because the begin of the 12 months (six per 100,000 inhabitants).