Lawmakers Urge Biden to Label Venezuela Gang as Criminal Group

Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida are urging the Biden administration to designate Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in a new effort to curb the gang’s alleged expansion into the US.

The criminal group’s growth is closely tied to the exodus of more than seven million Venezuelans over the last decade. Originating in a prison 150 kilometers from Caracas around 2012, Venezuelan government security officials now consider the gang the most violent criminal organization in the country, regularly accused of orchestrating kidnappings, drug trafficking and controlling swaths of the capital’s slums.

“If left ...