The US military has killed the leader of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang in an air strike, President Donald Trump announced, posting footage of a green building and shed being blown up on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said he directed the United States Southern Command to deliver “a swift and lethal kinetic strike” to execute Niño Guerrero, whose full name is Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores. The president described the gang as “one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth” and called the action “retribution” for crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in the US.
“US air strike kills Venezuela gang leader Niño Guerrero, Trump announces.”
“Before I returned to office, Joe Biden opened our Southern Border to millions of illegal Criminals, and allowed this foreign army to rape, maim, and murder American Citizens with total impunity,” Trump wrote. He said he had pledged to bring justice to families of victims including “the precious 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray” and “22-year-old Laken Riley”.
The strike was coordinated “closely with our friends in Venezuela”, Trump added, and Venezuelan authorities confirmed their involvement in what they described as a “joint operation”. The country’s communication ministry later said Guerrero was killed in a “combined operation” targeting organised crime in Bolívar state.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that the strike took place earlier this week on a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela. The gang, which has almost 10,000 members, was established more than a decade ago and is responsible for kidnappings, robberies, drug trafficking, prostitution and extortion. Trump has designated it a foreign terrorist organisation.
Guerrero, the longtime leader, transformed the gang from a prison outfit into a “transnational criminal organisation”, according to the US state department, which had offered millions for his capture. He spent years in and out of prison, escaping in 2012 by bribing a guard and again in 2023 when then-President Nicolás Maduro sent 11,000 soldiers to storm the Tocorón Prison in Aragua state – a jail Guerrero had turned into a leisure complex with a zoo, restaurants, a nightclub and a swimming pool.
In January, American forces seized Maduro to face criminal charges in New York, accusing him of collaborating with Tren de Aragua. An indictment named Guerrero as a co-conspirator.
Trump said the strike means Tren de Aragua terrorists will no longer have a “safe haven” in Venezuela.