Biden Administration Weighs Action Against Venezuelan Gang

The Biden administration isn't ready to say whether it plans to formally designate Venezuela’s largest criminal gang, Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization, a State Department official said at an April 11 congressional hearing.

Although two department officials referred to Tren de Aragua as a TCO in written testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere, the administration hasn't announced an official designation of the group.

“We’re working very closely on the internal process,” said Chris Landberg, deputy assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. “We don’t want to discuss the details of our internal deliberations on sanctions or designations.”

In response to questioning by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Landberg said the administration shares lawmakers’ concerns about Tren de Aragua. He pledged to keep the senator’s staff updated on the matter.

Rubio was among 23 Senate and House Republicans who sent a letter to President Joe Biden in March urging him to designate Tren de Aragua a TCO (see 2403180042). The lawmakers said the gang poses a growing threat to the U.S. as well as to Central and South America.

Asked by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., whether sanctions imposed on Nicaragua are having a positive effect, Mark Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said those measures don't seem to be deterring that country's crackdown on civil society and religious groups.

“I don’t have a lot of good news to tell about Nicaragua,” Wells testified. “What we’ve seen is continued repression by the Ortega-Murillo regime against all types of leaders, including religious, both evangelicals and Catholics, [and] all human rights activists.”

Four Republican senators urged Biden in a March 14 letter to impose additional sanctions on Nicaragua (see 2403150053). A week later, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Nicaragua’s attorney general (see 2403150053).

Asked by Rubio whether Chile is doing enough to crack down on Hezbollah’s revenue-generating activities in that country, Wells said the South American country cooperates with the U.S. "on all cases of international terrorism."