Small and medium-sized producers from the Leonardo Infante municipality (Valle de la Pascua), Guárico, denounce that they are victims of a criminal group that charges them a kind of tax in dollars.
From other sources we learned that it is a cell of the Tren del Llano that was installed in the aforementioned municipality of Guariqueño. The subjects operate in Las Paradas, Valle 5, El Jobo, El Bostero, Las Palmas and Las Campechanas, among other rural areas of Valle de la Pascua.
According to witnesses, the subjects usually move two by two on motorcycles. They enter the rural properties and talk to the owner as if they had known him for a lifetime. And while they ask for coffee, they are exposing the owner to the demand for a weekly fee in dollars, under threat of death.
After this recruitment to the producers, the subjects appear Tuesday and Wednesday to withdraw the cash. They convene a group on Tuesday and another on Wednesday.
Allegedly there are some producers who are exempted from payment, but in exchange they are commissioned to find out what the net income of their workmates is, information that the leaders of the criminal cell use to set the collection rates.
The victims say that this situation had not occurred in that rural area in the north of Valle de la Pascua, where they tend to produce mostly fattening cattle, milk and cheese, according to testimonies. In the area there is a PDVSA pumping station.
Since March 2022, the Tren del Llano, whose headquarters are located in Altagracia de Orituco, expanded to the municipalities located to the east of Guárico, that is, Leonardo Infante (Valle de la Pascua), José Félix Ribas (Tucupio) , Pedro Zaraza (Zaraza) and Santa Maria de Ipire.
In those territories they have installed cells that have weapons of war. They charge farmers for vaccine, causing some of them to abandon their farms or sell them at low prices, according to research. he
