InSight Crime Highlights Decade of Experience Researching Organized Crime in Venezuela

InSight Crime’s investigators have researched organized crime from the field across Venezuela, documenting, analyzing, and exposing violence, corruption, and criminal economies. Our numerous in-depth investigations, news articles, and profiles of criminal actors have been put together through a range of interviews, field work, and media monitoring.?

This has led to the creation of a new platform entirely dedicated to tracking criminal events in Venezuela: the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory .

For 20 years, Colombia's Marxist guerrillas used Venezuela as a refuge from the Colombian Army. Thanks to their relationship with the government of former President Hugo Chávez, these groups were able to control lucrative criminal economies and further their political goals with impunity. Today, the guerrillas have spread further into Venezuela, filling their ranks with local recruits, taking control of communities, and even influencing the country’s political landscape. For five years, InSight Crime investigated the development of Colombia’s armed groups in Venezuela, culminating in an investigation entitled "The Colombo-Venezuelan Guerrillas: How Colombia’s War Migrated to Venezuela ,” published in October 2022.

In another six-part series, “Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution ," we analyzed how the death of Chávez and the arrival to power of his successor, Nicolás Maduro, marked a sea change for cocaine trafficking in Venezuela, as the country saw cocaine production cross over the border from Colombia, putting it at risk of becoming became the world’s fourth-largest cocaine producer. We explained how Maduro has skillfully positioned himself as the custodian of Venezuela’s drug trade, exercising control over cocaine revenues, corrupt politicians, and the military-embedded trafficking network known as the "Cartel of the Suns .”

InSight Crime has also charted the evolution of numerous organized crime groups in the country. Years of research and fieldwork led to "Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 for 2023 ," in which we profiled the most dangerous organized crime groups operating in the country today. These ranged from binational guerrilla groups to smaller, yet no less violent, mining gangs in the gold-rich regions of southern and eastern Venezuela. Our rankings were based on 38 indicators in ten key areas, including economic strength, armed capacity, and level of collusion with authorities. These groups are among the 30 criminal actors profiled in the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory .

InSight Crime also produces regular coverage of current organized crime trends in Venezuela. In March 2023, we published "Brutal but Futile: Venezuela's Anti-Gang 'Mega-Operations' " which assessed the effectiveness of large-scale operations launched by Maduro to combat criminal gangs terrorizing communities. Amid widespread reports of human rights violations, this strategy’s aims and effectiveness have come in for sharp criticism.

Finally, we looked at the important role Venezuela’s President Maduro will play in Colombia’s Total Peace efforts with multiple armed groups, some of whom have a close relationship with the Venezuelan state.

"Beyond its role as a facilitator or guarantor, Venezuela's part in negotiations is unclear. But its role will surely be strengthened due to the presence of the [Colombian] guerrillas in the country," Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Observatory of Venezuela at the University of Rosario, told InSight Crime.

Read “Venezuela's Maduro Is Key to Colombia’s 'Total Peace’ "

Keep up to date with organized crime news in Venezuela at insightcrime. org.?