US-Venezuela operation kills Tren de Aragua leader Nino Guerrero

WASHINGTON: The leader of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua has been killed in southern Venezuela in an operation carried out jointly by the United States and Venezuela, according to statements issued by both governments.

Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications said on Friday that Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as Nino Guerrero, was neutralised in the southeastern state of Bolivar. US President Donald Trump later said Guerrero was killed in what he described as a swift and lethal kinetic strike by US forces, adding that the attack had been closely coordinated with Venezuelan authorities.

In a post on Truth Social on Friday night, Trump said Tren de Aragua militants no longer had safe haven in Venezuela or elsewhere. His post was accompanied by a 10-second video showing an overhead view of a building surrounded by greenery before an explosion sent smoke into the air. No people were clearly visible in the footage.

On Saturday, Patrick Weaver, deputy chief of staff to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, said the killing was intended as a warning to criminal groups in the region. In a post on X, he said the operation sent a message across Latin America that there would be no refuge for what he called narco-terrorists in the hemisphere.

Gang’s reach and US case

Founded in Venezuela, Tren de Aragua has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States. The group is also active in Colombia, Peru and Chile.

In December, federal prosecutors in New York brought racketeering, drug and firearms charges against Guerrero Flores. At the time, US Attorney Jay Clayton said Guerrero Flores had overseen the transformation of Tren de Aragua from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organisation.

Clayton also said the group, under Guerrero Flores’s leadership, had carried out violence, extortion and drug trafficking across North America, South America and Europe. The US State Department had announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Background and prison network

An InSight Crime think tank report cited in the source article said Guerrero shaped Tren de Aragua into its current form while he was imprisoned at Tocoron. The prison became one of Venezuela’s most notorious detention facilities under his influence, amid what it described as an unofficial practice by the Venezuelan government of leaving control of some prisons to criminal bosses known as pranes.

According to that report, the freedom enjoyed by gang leaders and the group’s criminal income allowed amenities including a zoo, swimming pool, playground, restaurant and nightclub to be built inside the prison.

US-Venezuela ties

The operation comes amid improving relations between Caracas and Washington after the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro by US forces in January. The two countries restored diplomatic relations in March after ties had been severed in 2019, and the United States is now in the process of reactivating its embassy in Caracas.