On the night of April 20, 2022, hundreds of heavily armed police and military officials descended on the municipality of Altagracia de Orituco in the central Venezuelan state of Guarico with orders to hunt down the Tren del Llano gang and its collaborators in what the government labeled Operación Trueno – Operation Thunder. But instead of directly confronting the gang, they rampaged through the region, terrorizing and traumatizing the population.

In the months that followed, lawyers from the human rights organization Defiende Venezuela traveled the region documenting evidence of the abuses committed by the security forces and taking witness testimonies from their victims. The following stories are based on those testimonies.

The Operation

Operation Trueno began on the night of April 20, 2022, when around 800 police and military officials traveling in 30 cars and 10 armored vehicles descended on the municipality of Altagracia de Orituco in the state of Guárico. This story is part of an investigation produced by InSight Crime and the Venezuelan human rights organization Defiende…

The Stories


pdf download thumbnail report abuses human rights defiende venezuela violence in venezuela

Human Rights Abuses During ‘Operation Trueno’

Read Defiende Venezuela’s full report documenting 34 cases of abuses and human rights violations committed by the security forces during Operation Trueno.

Tren del Llano Profile

Read InSight Crime’s profile of the gang that was the declared target of Operation Trueno.

Credits

Illustrations and colorization: Juan José Restrepo
Investigation: Ezequiel A. Monsalve Fernandez, Hjalmar D. Soler Zambrano
Texts: James Bargent
Creative direction and art direction: Elisa Roldán

Layout and effects: Belmar Santanilla
Editing: Mike LaSusa, María Fernanda Ramírez, Lara Loaiza
Graphic design: Juan José Restrepo, María Isabel Gaviria, Ana Isabel Rico
Social media: Camila Aristizábal, Paula Rojas, Daniel Reyes

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