U.S. President Donald Trump said late Friday that the U.S. military killed the leader of the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua in an airstrike in Venezuela, calling the operation a direct act of retribution against one of the world’s most violent criminal organizations.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump said U.S. Southern Command carried out what he described as a “swift and lethal kinetic strike” that killed Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of Tren de Aragua. Trump did not say when the strike took place.
Footage from the US strike
(Video: Truth Social)
“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua,” Trump wrote, calling the gang “one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth.”
Trump said the operation was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.” He also posted footage that appeared to show a strike on a structure.
The president used the announcement to attack his predecessor, Joe Biden, saying Biden had “opened our Southern Border to millions of Illegal Criminals” and allowed what Trump called a “foreign army” to rape, maim and murder Americans “with total impunity.”
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Deported Tren de Aragua gang members are transferred to a prison in El Salvador
(Photo: AFP PHOTO / EL SALVADOR'S PRESIDENCY PRESS OFFICE)
Trump said he had promised during his campaign to expel Tren de Aragua members from the United States and bring justice to victims’ families. He specifically cited Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, and Laken Riley, 22, whose killings became prominent cases in his campaign messaging on immigration and crime.
“With this action, the United States Military has brought retribution for them, their families, and their loved ones,” Trump wrote.
Trump said that early in his administration he had designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, deported thousands of criminals and launched a campaign against cartels that, he said, had long been waging war against American citizens.
“As a result, Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else,” he wrote. “Under my leadership, we will find these vicious murderers and drug lords anytime, anyplace, and send them to the depths of hell where they belong.”
Tren de Aragua, which originated in Venezuela, has expanded across Latin America and has been linked by law enforcement officials in the region to human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, assassinations, smuggling and organized theft from Panama to Brazil.
The United States previously offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores’ capture. He had been charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including support for terrorism.
In March last year, the U.S. deported more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, saying they were members of Tren de Aragua. The deportations came after Trump invoked rarely used wartime powers to accelerate the removal process. The migrants were imprisoned in El Salvador under an arrangement with Washington.
Months later, in July, the administration announced a prisoner exchange deal with Venezuela, under which 252 Venezuelans held in El Salvador were returned to their country in exchange for the release of 10 Americans detained in Venezuela.
In the order he signed to invoke the wartime powers, Trump described Tren de Aragua as effectively a state-like entity and said Venezuelan national and local authorities had increasingly ceded control of territory to transnational criminal organizations, including the gang.