On Saturday, the Venezuelan government carried out a media tour of the notorious Tocorón Penitentiary Center in Aragua state, which had until recently been under the direct control of gangs for several years.
Doubling as the headquarters for Venezuela's most powerful criminal group — Tren de Aragua — the facility included luxuries such as a zoo, swimming pool, and nightclub.
Venezuelan forces conducted an extremely successful and well-coordinated takedown of the gang-run Tocorón prison and cleared inmates out of the facility. After years of living in luxury, Tren de Aragua gang members are finally being held accountable. The Venezuelan authorities should be celebrated for cracking down on criminal enterprises destabilizing the country.
The Tocorón prison has long been symbolic of Venezuela's declining criminal justice system, yet it seems that the government is still allowing shady activities to continue even when it's claiming to crack down on crime. The fact that the gang's leader hasn't been captured shows that the notoriously corrupt Venezuelan government may have purposely let the career criminal off the hook.