In all the baseball academies, the comment among the young players, coaches, parents and representatives was one: The spiral of violence that is occurring around the activities of the academies?
The murder of a coach, the attack on the owner of a baseball academy, videos with threats from armed men and a dozen extortions —in different forms— against businessmen and figures linked to baseball are some of the daily demonstrations that take place around of the playing fields. And everyone points out that all this is caused by the incursion of the “pranes” in the business of the academies.
The young practitioners, with good reason, constantly request that they explain what is happening and what measures they will take to overcome this delicate, if not dangerous, situation. “Here in Aragua, all the academies pay a percentage to the Tocorón pranes. Anyone who doesn’t pay is killed,” said one of the coaches.
To reinforce his statement, he allowed himself to recall the case of “José Luis Alviarez Alecio, sports coach, who was in charge of training several adolescents, considered talents to reach the Major Leagues, in an improvised and modest baseball academy that worked in the stadium Jose Casanova Godoy. They killed him because he refused to pay extortion.
– How was arrive to this situation? Someone explain to us, was the unanimous expression of all those people who have a direct or indirect relationship with these sports centers.
One of the coaches, a regional leader of the “Gente del Deporte” group, intervened to attempt an approach to the causes of the problem. All of you must remember that in our country until 2005 there were 22 baseball farms representative of the Major League teams; but the Chavista regime caused a progressive reduction of the same, reaching only four of them by the year 2015. This gap was filled by the private academies. The player signing business was so prosperous that between July 2, 2015 and January 15, 2022, some 69 young Venezuelans signed for more than US$1 million with one of the 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. in the United States, while more than 2,000 — an average of 350 per year — have settled for amounts ranging from $10,000 to $990,000. The record for the highest bonus for a Venezuelan is held by Kevín Maitán, who received US$4.2 million in 2016. The business became so profitable that a new partner appeared, “El Tren de Aragua”, the mega band that operates from Tocoron prison.
-But, everyone wondered, what did the government do?
Well, said the coach. I am going to explain them using a baseball game as a simile:
-Primer Inning:
The colectivos emerged during the presidency of Hugo Chávez, after Chávez created his main organizations, the Bolivarian circles. According to Joseph Humire, director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, “the colectivos were based on the Iranian Basij militias, noting that Chavez had personal meetings with Iranian officials including Basij commander Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Nadqi. Chavez charged the colectivos with being “the armed wing of the Bolivarian revolution”, and the government offered them weapons, communication systems , motorcycles and surveillance equipment to exercise control in the hills of Caracas, where the police are prohibited from entering. Some weapons alleged to have been given to the groups include assault rifles, submachine guns, and grenades. Members of the colectivos have attacked protesters, journalists, students, religious leaders, and people suspected of being critical of the government, sometimes with the consent of security forces and in some cases even openly coordinating with them.”
There are between 20 and 100 different collectives in Venezuela, the most prominent groups being the Tupamaros, the Francisco de Miranda Front, Alexis Vive, La Piedrita and Ciudad Socialista Frente 5 de Marzo. Fermín Mármol León, a Venezuelan criminologist and author of Four Crimes, Four Powers, declared that “if the revolution loses the presidency tomorrow, the collectives will immediately become an urban guerrilla.”
The Venezuelan State has been forming an entire organization of armed civilians, attaching them to the structure of state power, to carry out crimes and intimidate a sector of the civilian population, fine-tuning, in this way, a machinery of repression so that the groups work together with state forces, a situation that is beginning to be denounced in various international organizations
-Second Inning:
The peace zones in Venezuela were perhaps one of the strongest evidences of the erratic and irregular relationship between the government and organized crime.
Conceived in 2013 as a response to the spiral of homicides and violence, the peace zones were supposed to suspend police operations and help the gangs in violent districts, in exchange for them handing over their weapons, helping to maintain the peace and leaving all kinds of illegal activities. This came from the hand of 19 security plans, which tried to stop the homicides in Venezuelan territory and failed.
The first peace zone was established in the state of Miranda, before the creation of others in Aragua, Guárico and Caracas. Among the most prominent members we can mention El Tren de Aragua, El Koki’s band and Carlos Capa’s.
-Tercer Inning:
For her part, the director of Venezuela’s prison system, Iris Varela, has made no secret of her belief that prisoners should also be used in defense of the government. One of her famous expressions is the one in which she points out that “The armed groups are a pillar of the defense of the homeland.” In an interview with InSight Crime in July 2019, Varela stated that “up to 45,000 inmates could defend Venezuela from foreign military intervention.” Security experts also told InSight Crime that “Varela maintains communication with the head of El Tren de Aragua, Niño Guerrero, in the Tocorón prison.”
-Cuarto Inning:
The Aragua Train was formed with the train construction union in the state of Aragua whose construction in 2009/2010 never materialized due to laziness according to the 2006 National Socialist Plan for Railway Development and whose members proceeded to dedicate themselves to criminal activities such as extortion, kidnappings, robberies and homicides. The Aragua Train has been responsible for murders and extortions with the aim of increasing territorial control over drug trafficking and smuggling.
-Quinto Inning:
The peace zones (populated neighborhoods) today converted into a war zone in Caracas after the non-aggression pact signed between the gangs with José Vicente Rangel Avalos.
-Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Innings:
The institutionalization of toll collection in order to have access to gas service, purchase of subsidized gasoline and bags of food.
-Noveno Inning:
In Venezuela there are 195 academies registered in the Venezuelan Association of Baseball Agents (Avab), and a hundred more that operate independently. They are private organizations dedicated to the recruitment and training of children and adolescents with the potential to reach the Major Leagues. They also act as intermediaries and manage the hiring and signing of prospects. In this highly profitable sports market, organized crime is present through extortion mechanisms, toll collection, vaccination collection, death threats or through a new modality such as owning “La Pran Academy”.
Thanks for the explanation, said all those present. But, the concern now was greater, since the umpire of this game, which is the government authority, always decrees “safe” for each robbery play.
