For years I have held up Venezuela in my econ classes as an example of bad policy. Now it appears that those policies have led to more crime being exported to our city.
San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association President Joe Jones recently cautioned firefighters to stay vigilant on the north central side. A growing number of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have apparently moved into that area.
This is a cautionary tale for San Antonians.
Since the late Hugo Chavez took over in Venezuela, and was succeeded by current president Nicolas Maduro, their admittedly socialist policies have led what was once one of the wealthier countries in South America, into an economic black hole.
This kind of governance leads to predictable outcomes: shortages, bare shelves, inflation, etc. Though it may be called “progressive” in local jurisdictions like ours, the results would be the same.
When citizens start to feel the full effect, they try to change things at the ballot box. When that doesn’t work, they flee. Apparently, members of Tren de Aragua have ridden that wave all the way across our borders.
And as it turns out, some of the aforementioned local programs have arguably attracted this trouble.
As much as the mainstream media may claim that the Migrant Resource Center is not a draw for immigrants, it provides a more enticing alternative than “languishing on the streets.” It isn’t the sole reason they come; perhaps not even the biggest reason. But it does make their arrival more likely.
Throughout our history, immigrants have helped make our country great, which is why I support immigration. But that doesn’t deprive me of a basic sense of logic here. Though our situation is more a consequence of federal dysfunction, there are local actions that more clearly have added to this mess.
These gang members have reportedly taken up (or more accurately taken over) residence in areas with government-subsidized housing. There aren’t many issues that show city policy at its worst more than its drive for ‘affordable’ housing.
A couple years ago, via the 2022 bond election, officials misled citizens into thinking they could fix the problem of soaring housing costs by borrowing more. A cruel irony is that what pays for that debt is property taxes.
Rather than holding the line on these tax seizures from homeowners, the votes to increase them, while approving yearly budget hikes, have been nearly unanimous. Basically, council knows better how to deal with this with your savings than you do.
Now we have terrorists taking advantage of this CoSA naivete. This is just one reason we have various communities across the county protesting these developments.
We applaud law enforcement’s moving in Saturday after reports of criminal activity, but the city and police have known about this for at least a year. Hopefully yesterday’s arrests reflect a change in tactic.
In the event however, that a member of Tren de Aragua pierces this layer of public safety, with any luck he’ll encounter an armed San Antonian who can’t be bribed by a city “buyback” of his human right to defend himself.
They’ll then discover one reason Venezuelan “progressive”-style policies haven’t fully taken hold here.