U.S. spy agencies say Maduro regime does not direct Venezuelan gang

Venezuelan authorities are probably not directing the activities of the gang known as Tren de Aragua or facilitating its operations in the United States, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a partially declassified report that contradicts President Donald Trump’s stated rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting suspected gang members without due process.

Trump invoked the 18th-century law in mid-March, proclaiming without evidence that Tren de Aragua is perpetrating an “invasion” of the United States “at the direction” of the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

But the secret April 7 assessment by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, largely concludes the opposite.

“The Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” it says. Rather, it says, the Venezuelan regime, while sometimes tolerating the gang’s activities inside Venezuela, largely views it as a potential security threat.

The document, in which some passages remain redacted, was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the New York-based Freedom of the Press Foundation. The New York Times first reported on the declassified version of the document earlier Monday.

The Washington Post reported last month on the existence of the National Intelligence Council assessment, which represents the views of all 18 U.S. spy agencies and is the most comprehensive accounting to date of any ties between the Maduro regime and Tren de Aragua.

At the time, a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence vigorously disputed The Post’s reporting, saying that Trump took “necessary and historic action” to safeguard American citizens. “Now that America is safer without these terrorists in our cities, deep state actors have resorted to using their propaganda arm to attack the President’s successful policies,” the ODNI spokesperson said in a statement.

Subsequently, Gabbard said that she had asked the Justice Department to investigate alleged leaks from the intelligence community by people she described as “deep-state criminals.” Her deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, said on X that one of the leaks included information published in a recent Post article on Tren de Aragua.

The six-page assessment declassified on Monday says that most analysts deem “not credible” intelligence suggesting that Venezuelan regime leaders are directing or enabling Tren de Aragua migration to the United States.

The FBI takes a slightly different view, assessing that some members of the Venezuelan government help facilitate Tren de Aragua members’ entry into the United States, the report said.

Overall, the document concludes that Maduro and his associates occasionally tolerate the group’s activities within Venezuela itself, but eye it warily as a potential threat to the country’s stability and their hold on power.

“Venezuelan intelligence, military and police services view TDA as a security threat and operate against it in ways that make it highly unlikely the two sides would cooperate in a strategic or consistent way,” it says.