"They're lying about us being criminals to the whole world in an attack, " said Moises Didenot, a Venezuelan immigrant and resident at the Edge of Lowry apartments at 1208 Dallas Street. "We're fathers with families, mothers with families, hardworking people. The only criminal, in my opinion, is the landlord."
A few dozen residents at buildings owned by CBZ Management gathered alongside Didenot for a press conference organized by Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND) and the East Colfax Community Collective (EC3), a tenant-rights group, on Tuesday, September 3, at the Edge of Lowry.
The Edge is the setting of a now-famous video showing armed men crowding into a hall and then into an apartment. That video, captured in August, quickly gained national attention and spurred claims that Venezuelan gangs had taken over certain Aurora apartment complexes.
Four people with links to Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were arrested in late August for violent crime charges, according to KDVR. The gang has also been linked to a Denver jewelry heist in June in which four other people have been indicted. According to the Denver Police Department, Tren de Aragua was believed by Homeland Security intelligence to have issued a "green light" to shoot DPD officers who interfere with its gang activity.
The mayors and police departments of Aurora and Denver have acknowledged activity by Tren de Aragua, but dispute claims that apartment complexes have been taken over by gangs. Still, a handful of Aurora City Council members believe the property owner.
Residents of the Edge and Whispering Pines, an Aurora apartment complex located at 1457 Helena Street, said the real issue wasn't gangs, but neglect by CBZ Management, the out-of-state company that oversees nearly a dozen apartment complexes in the Denver area.
"I invite you to come by my apartment there. There are rats. Yesterday, I caught three. There are cockroaches," Didenot said. "There is a lot of disease. There are a lot of rats here. The fear about living here is the rats and the bedbugs."
"The apartment is full of bedbugs, like some that have bit up my arm," said Edge resident Francia Rodriguez. "Sometimes the curtains in my apartment don't work. In my apartment, the thermostat doesn't work, the air conditioning doesn't work. There's a hole in the ceiling from maintenance workers who left it there."
CBZ has alleged that its property at 1568 Nome Street, known as Fitzsimons Place or Aspen Grove, was in disrepair because members of Tren de Aragua had terrorized its employees and overtaken the complex. On August 13, the City of Aurora closed the property and evicted its couple hundred residents.
"I invite you to come by my apartment there. There are rats. Yesterday, I caught three. There are cockroaches," Didenot said. "There is a lot of disease. There are a lot of rats here. The fear about living here is the rats and the bedbugs."
"The apartment is full of bedbugs, like some that have bit up my arm," said Edge resident Francia Rodriguez. "Sometimes the curtains in my apartment don't work. In my apartment, the thermostat doesn't work, the air conditioning doesn't work. There's a hole in the ceiling from maintenance workers who left it there."
CBZ has alleged that its property at 1568 Nome Street, known as Fitzsimons Place or Aspen Grove, was in disrepair because members of Tren de Aragua had terrorized its employees and overtaken the complex. On August 13, the City of Aurora closed the property and evicted its couple hundred residents.
According to HAND, the City of Aurora is planning to shut down the Edge and Whispering Pines and evict residents, as well. All three properties have outstanding code violations, according to the city. However, those at the September 3 gathering said they wanted the city to consider other options that put more pressure on CBZ instead of on the residents.
"The result of the conditions of this building is the fault, and the sole fault, of CBZ Management," said Nate Kassa, an organizer with EC3. "They're trying to push the blame on the families and the residents."Residents at the Edge say that strangers have been threatening them since the viral video. Another resident of the complex showed texts he allegedly received from a stranger who found their phone number on social media. In the text, the stranger called them "illegals" and "fucking animals," and threatened that "Colorado residents are building a militia," adding, "We got your number now everyone who hates illegals know where you live fucking animals."
Jefferson Medina and Christopher Sanchez, Venezuelan immigrants who live at the Edge, tell Westword that strangers have been driving around the apartment and making threats. Medina says that on Monday, a car of three or four men drove through the apartment parking lot, with one of the men flashing "a large gun" and yelling "ugly things" like "get out of here, nutless Venezuelan. Lousy shit, leave."
Didenot, who's lived at the Edge for two years, says that he's also been threatened. Everyone he knows living in the apartment complex is shaken after finding threatening fliers posted outside, he adds.
"I go to work at five in the morning, and I'm already afraid for my life that someone is going to do something — because I'm Venezuelan, they're going to do something," Didenot says. "We've all already been threatened with a flier saying we're all criminals. I'm afraid someone is going to do something out of hate."
Moises Didenot, a Venezuelan migrant and resident of the Edge of Lowry, says that he has been dealing with multiple health and safety violations but CBZ Management won't solve the issues.
Bennito L. Kelty
Many Venezuelans live across the Edge and other CBZ-managed properties. Medina says he got in with the help of an Aurora congregation. Didenot says that Papagayo, a nonprofit that has been working alongside the City of Denver to respond to a large influx of migrants since 2022, helped him and other Venezuelans find and move into the apartments. Others say they found the place by talking to other Venezuelan migrants.
A few hours after residents gave their side, Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky spoke to a live audience of 5,000 users on X in a conversation titled "What is Going on in Aurora, Co w/ Whistleblower Danielle Jurinsky."
During the live conversation, hosted by the popular conservative account MJTruthUltra, Jurinsky responded to the press conference and demands by protesters with an offer: "If there's anybody that has an actual lease that I can verify, I will gladly move them out myself. Just like I have with other folks."
Last month, the councilwoman posted that promise on her X account in response to news about the press conference. On August 28, Jurinsky helped move a family out of the Edge of Lowry; she said on X that it was the same family that took the footage of five armed men storming through the stairway and into an apartment with rifles and handguns.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman has gone back and forth on the rumors. Jurinsky said on X he was "my biggest hurdle" when she first started asserting the gang claims in early August. On August 29, however, Coffman went on Fox News and said that "there are several buildings actually under the same ownership, under state ownership, that have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs."
In a statement shared with media on August 29, Governor Jared Polis's office said that he "hopes Aurora councilmembers stop thrashing their own city when they are supposed to keep it safe."
He countered gang takeover claims by stating that "violent crime in Aurora went down between 2022-2023." In 2022, Aurora recorded about 20,000 incidents of major crimes, which include violent crimes as well as larceny, burglary and motor vehicle theft. That number decreased to 17,000 in 2023, according to the Aurora Police Department.
Before Aurora had the national spotlight, the claim that Venezuelan gangs were terrorizing an apartment came from an anonymous source from CBZ. On August 5, ahead of the eviction action at the Nome Street apartments, the CBZ source said the property had fallen into disrepair because employees and landlords were intimidated by members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.
The City of Aurora was quick to respond, saying the property owner was trying to "fabricate alternative narratives" and "engage in diversionary tactics." Aurora Police reiterated that point on August 30, when Heather Morris, the interim police chief, said that claims of gangs "are simply not true," in a video put out by the city.
"While these isolated situations are rightfully of great concern and warrant increased action and scrutiny, violent crime in the city is down in nearly all crime categories," Morris said. "Aurora is a safe place to live, work and visit."
On August 13, the same day as the mass eviction on Nome Street, a judge ruled that CBZ and Zev Baumgarten, who is identified by Aurora Police as the owner of the property, must pay to house the hundreds of tenants said to have been evicted.
A jury trial on August 27 was supposed to resolve hundreds of charges against Baumgarten related to code violations at Fitzsimons Place dating back to 2020. An Aurora judge allowed Baumgarten to postpone resolution of those charges to February 14 and avoid a jury trial.
According to HAND, Baumgarten and CBZ have to pay out sixty nights at an apartment or hotel for upwards of 200 residents who were forced to leave Fitzsimons Place — but so far, only a small number of families have had about twelve nights paid for, with CBZ contesting the rest.
