Residents proceed their each day lives because the political shadow of deposed President Nicolas Maduro fades from public consciousness in Caracas, Venezuela, on June 11, 2026.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Photos
President Donald Trump stated on Friday that U.S. forces carried out a strike that killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also referred to as Niño Guerrero, the chief of Venezuelan jail gang Tren de Aragua.
“At my path, america Southern Command delivered a swift and deadly kinetic strike to efficiently execute Nino Guerrero the notorious chief of Tren De Aragua, probably the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” Trump stated in a submit on Reality Social on Friday night.
“This motion was coordinated intently with our buddies in Venezuela, with whom we’re working very properly.”
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strike was performed earlier this week and that Guerrero “was confirmed killed through the strike.”
Venezuela’s data ministry stated that through the operation within the nation’s Bolívar state, there have been clashes with members of legal teams, wherein the chief, Guerrero, was neutralized.
The operation concerned specialised technological assist and was carried out by cooperation and intelligence sharing between authorities of each international locations, the ministry stated.
The Trump administration has repeatedly focused Guerrero and different leaders of the Tren de Aragua group with sanctions over alleged involvement in legal actions comparable to illicit drug smuggling, human trafficking and cash laundering.
The State Division has designated Tren de Aragua a overseas terrorist group.
Trump has claimed Tren de Aragua coordinated its U.S. actions with the Venezuelan authorities of President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has cited the alleged connection to justify deporting some immigrants within the U.S. to a maximum-security jail in El Salvador.
Tren de Aragua is understood for being concerned in human trafficking and controls routes taken by Venezuelans and different South American migrants heading south to comparatively affluent Chile and different locations in South America or Europe.
The group has additionally been linked to extortion, kidnapping, cash laundering, contract killings, smuggling and arranged retail theft from Panama to Brazil and alongside the Andean hall, Latin American police officers say.
Guerrero escaped from the Tocoron jail in Venezuela together with different gang leaders simply earlier than a police raid in 2023.
