Political support from career criminals is usually a matter of skulduggery and campaign finance. But one prison gang in Venezuela broke with tradition, releasing a video in which its members gave a ringing endorsement to local candidates.
By Insight Crime
Aug 13, 2021
On August 8, during primary elections held by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela – PSUV), a video was shared on social media in which two inmates at La Pica prison, located in the northeastern Monagas state, publicly expressed their support for a group of local candidates.
Two inmates can be seen claiming that Tren del Oriente supports the current governor, Yelitze Santaella, as well as mayoral candidates in the municipalities of Maturín, Ezequiel Zamora and Santa Bárbara.
The camera then pans to a large crowd of prisoners who cheer, applaud and chant, “Yelitze, Yelitze!” Yelitze Santaella is currently seeking a third consecutive term as the governor of Monagas. She is a veteran of PSUV politics, having previou sly served as governor of neighboring Delta Amacuro state between 2000 and 2008.
A local investigator, who spoke with InSight Crime on condition of anonymity for security reasons, explained that Tren de Oriente is a mega-gang that uses La Pica prison in the city of Maturín as its center of operations.
“They handle extortion and drugs there. They have a whole drug monopoly [in Monagas] out of La Pica,” the researcher said.
La Pica is one of five prisons in Venezuela to so far be outside the sphere of a government plan passed in 2013 to help authorities regain control of prisons.
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