The system of criminal leadership born in Venezuelan prisons, better known as “pranato,” refuses to die despite the government operations that have hit it hard. According to the latest report from the Prison Observatory (Observatorio de Prisiones – OVP), criminals who began dominating police holding cells two years ago have consolidated their power, while the leaders from dismantled prisons remain free.
At the end of 2023, President Nicolás Maduro’s administration launched a series of operations to “take control” of seven prisons that by that point were effectively run by criminal leaders, starting with Tocorón, the stronghold of the now-transnational gang Tren de Aragua. The highly publicized operations entered the prisons, destroyed many of their facilities, and moved the inmates to other institutions.
The government presented the operations as a major blow to the pranato to garner votes ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, but the reality was different: there were no high-profile arrests, many of the top criminal leaders, or pranes, escaped without resistance, and others even managed to remove their belongings from the facility. Not one has been recaptured to date.
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Several criminal leaders relocated and continued their criminal activities in Venezuela and other countries in the region. Among them is the top leader of Tren de Aragua, Héctor Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” who commanded the Tocorón prison for years. After the facility was taken over, he sought refuge in Bolívar state, in the mining area of Las Claritas, with his ally Yohan Jose Romero, alias “Johan Petrica,” one of the founders of Tren de Aragua.
InSight Crime Analysis
Although the Venezuelan government mostly dismantled the pranato in the country’s prisons, the criminal structure has been replicated by officials and recreated in police holding cells, where control is lacking and complicity is rampant.
Far from eradicating the pranato, those in charge of security in Venezuela’s penitentiary facilities tolerate it and even benefit from its existence. This criminal system has become an informal source of income for them, boosting their low salaries. After the operations carried out at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 in several Venezuelan prisons, most of the criminal leaders who ran the pranato fled, and their system was coopted by police and military officials. A source with extensive knowledge of the prisons told InSight Crime that prisoners now pay officials for benefits like smuggling drugs, phones, and packages into the facilities.
Meanwhile, in police holding cells, the criminal-run pranato system flourishes. There, prisoners pay the fee known as “la causa” to the pranes running these establishments — paying more in exchange for perks – with complicit officials receiving a cut. Some families even fund prisoner transfers to these centers, which are considered “safer” or offer greater privileges, according to the OVP.
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“The pranato system has been able to consolidate in police holding cells because criminal leaders can act with more freedom, since they are under less scrutiny than those in the prisons,” said Humberto Prado, director of the OVP, to InSight Crime.
Featured image: Security officers stationed outside the Tocorón prison in Aragua, Venezuela, following an operation against prison gangs in October 2023. Credit: BBC Mundo.