Viral footage showing armed Venezuelan gang members taking over an apartment complex in a Denver suburb has shocked thousands, especially after Mayor Mike Coffman of Aurora, Colorado joined Fox News’s Sandra Smith on Thursday to explain how failed border policies are affecting his city — which is around 700 miles away from the US-Mexico border. In the interview, Coffman confirmed that at least two apartment buildings in Aurora were taken by what some suspect are members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang. 

All of this is not quite surprising for those who are familiar with Venezuela. “Invasiones” (invasions, as Venezuelans call it) have been a recurrent phenomenon throughout the oil-rich South American country in the last twenty years. Notably, the Chavista regime has aided and abetted its “colectivos” (regime-connected paramilitary groups) in what has become a state-sponsored practice.

Show a person in Caracas the footage and they would believe you if you said that it’s from a residency in the capital city’s north. Tell them it’s in the land of the free and they’ll be as shocked as you. 

The concept of having entitled “revolutionaries” take over people’s homes is disgusting enough. Yet what started informally in Caracas eventually became a practice encouraged by authorities, including the then-vice president of Venezuela’s national assembly, who proposed confiscating all properties and lands that remain unused because their owners have fled the country.

For a Venezuelan-trained eye, it is hard to not to think that there is a suspicious level of organization in what took place in Colorado. In what was once a vibrant valley, the practice of “invasiones,” made it so that people didn’t even feel safe in their own homes. This didn’t happen because a few criminals woke up and felt like it. There were incentives. 

Today, in the United States, there are incentives as well. Come illegally? You can stay. Shoplift? Just don’t do it again. Commit a series of crimes while residing here illegally? Whatever. The United States is seeing the consequences of perverse policy incentives. In Venezuela, it started with leaders looking away and it evolved into them joining the criminals. 

When thinking about what may come next, Americans may benefit from looking south, not only because the stories sound increasingly familiar, but also because the people that ruined it there are heading here.