The United States military has killed Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the leader of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang, in a co-ordinated military operation conducted with Venezuelan forces in the south-eastern state of Bolívar, President Donald Trump announced on June 12.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform, said the operation was carried out under his direct orders by the US Southern Command. “Under my direction, the United States Southern Command launched a vigorous, swift, and lethal strike to successfully execute ‘Niño Guerrero,’ the infamous leader of the Tren de Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty terrorist organizations on planet Earth,” he wrote, using Guerrero Flores’s alias.
Venezuela’s Ministry of Communication and Information confirmed the operation and the death of Guerrero Flores in a separate statement, saying it had been conducted with “specialised technological support” and through bilateral intelligence-sharing mechanisms.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation had taken place earlier in the week. He posted on X that the operation demonstrated the shared US and Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe haven in the hemisphere.
Guerrero Flores, 42, had been a fugitive since 2023, when Venezuelan authorities dismantled Tren de Aragua’s base of operations at the Tocorón prison in Aragua state.
Tren de Aragua’s Origins and Activities
Tren de Aragua was designated a terrorist organisation by Washington and has been linked to widespread violence, extortion, and narcotics distribution across several continents.
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The operation took place in Bolívar state, a mineral-rich region bordering Brazil and Guyana that is home to large-scale illegal gold mining and has long been contested by armed groups. Venezuelan authorities described Bolívar as a corridor for criminal networks.
US-Venezuela Cooperation
Trump said the two countries were collaborating effectively. “As a result, the Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else,” he wrote, adding that his administration would pursue criminal organisations “anytime, anyplace.”
The killing of Guerrero Flores marks a milestone in what has emerged as an increasingly co-operative security relationship between Washington and Caracas since Nicolás Maduro’s removal in January and the assumption of power by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. Breaking with two decades of socialist economic orthodoxy, Rodríguez has since overseen the opening of Venezuela’s oil and mineral wealth to US investors, earning repeated praise from President Trump.
According to reports, Tren de Aragua has not built a significant cross-border cocaine operation, unlike major trafficking networks based in Colombia or Central America, which have strong metal structures in place.
InSight Crime, a think tank that tracks organised crime across Latin America, reported that Tren de Aragua’s reach has grown largely in step with Venezuela’s mass emigration over the past decade, posing a challenge for businesses in the region.
