United States President Donald Trump announced on Friday that US forces had carried out a strike that killed Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores, also known as Niño Guerrero, the leader of the Venezuelan prison gang "Tren de Aragua", Reuters reports.
"At my direction, U.S. Southern Command conducted a swift and lethal kinetic strike that successfully eliminated Nijo Guerrero, the notorious leader of the 'Tren de Arague', one of the most deadly terrorist organizations on the planet," Trump wrote in a post on Twitter on Friday evening.
"This action was closely coordinated with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we work very well," Trump said.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced on X-Net that the strike was carried out earlier this week and that it was confirmed that Guerrero was "killed during the strike."
The Venezuelan Ministry of Information announced that during the operation there was a clash with members of criminal groups, in which the leader, Guerrero, was neutralized.
The ministry stated that the operation involved specialized technological support and was carried out through cooperation and intelligence sharing between the authorities of the two countries.
The Donald Trump administration has repeatedly imposed sanctions on Guerrero and other leaders of the "Tren de Aragua" organization for alleged involvement in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking and money laundering.
The State Department has designated "Tren de Aragua" as a foreign terrorist organization.
Trump claims that the "Tren de Aragua" coordinated its activities in the United States with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration has invoked this alleged connection to justify the deportation of certain immigrants from the United States to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
The "Tren de Aragua" is known for its involvement in human trafficking and control of migration routes used by Venezuelans and other South American migrants to travel to relatively prosperous Chile and other destinations in South America or Europe.
According to Latin American police officials, the group is also linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, contract killings, smuggling and organized retail theft, from Panama to Brazil and along the Andean corridor.
Guerrero escaped from Tocoron prison in Venezuela along with other gang leaders just before a police raid in 2023.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
