President Donald Trump announced Friday that U.S. forces killed the leader of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, in a military strike coordinated with Venezuela.
The operation against a group the United States has designated a terrorist organization comes as the Trump administration continues a campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats and military operations it says target the gang’s operations.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that U.S. Southern Command “delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth.” He said the action “was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.” His post included a video appearing to show the strike.
Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court in December with racketeering conspiracy and lending support to terrorists in crimes spanning more than a decade, according to authorities. The U.S. State Department had offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at the time that the gang was responsible for “countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking” in North America, South America and Europe. Trump nominated Clayton on Thursday to be director of national intelligence.
Trump has taken a series of extraordinary actions against the gang, including strikes on small boats his administration has accused of smuggling drugs to America. The Trump administration has claimed Tren de Aragua “invaded” the United States and is to blame for violence and illicit drugs in U.S. cities, sweeping statements that have drawn criticism from some in the Venezuelan diaspora. Trump spent months repeating the claim that Tren de Aragua had operated under Maduro’s control — a claim The Guardian reported was contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment. The U.S. whisked Maduro out of Venezuela to face U.S. drug charges in January.
Trump used the Friday announcement to criticize his predecessor. “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,” he wrote. He made reference to Jocelyn Nungaray and Laken Reilly, two American citizens who were killed in separate attacks by undocumented immigrants. Their cases became a political lightning rod for conservatives, who laid blame on Democratic leadership’s border policies.