The chief of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua has been killed in southern Venezuela as a part of a joint operation with the US, in what a high Pentagon official on Saturday described as a warning to “narco-terrorists” in Latin America.
Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores, alias Nino Guerrero, was “neutralized” in southeastern Bolivar state, Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications mentioned in an announcement on Friday.
US President Donald Trump mentioned Guerrero was killed in “a swift and deadly kinetic strike” by US forces, in an assault “coordinated intently with our pals in Venezuela”.
“Consequently, Tren de Aragua terrorists not have secure haven in Venezuela or wherever else,” Trump wrote on his Reality Social platform Friday night time.
On Saturday, a senior aide to Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth mentioned the killing was meant to function a stark warning.
“The dying of Nino Guerrero sends a transparent message to Latin America. There isn’t any refuge for narco-terrorists in our hemisphere,” Patrick Weaver, Hegseth’s deputy chief of employees, mentioned in a submit on X on Saturday morning.
Trump’s social submit confirming Guerrero’s killing was accompanied by a 10-second video, displaying an overhead view of a constructing surrounded by greenery earlier than an explosion erupts, sending up a cloud of smoke. No persons are clearly seen within the footage.
‘Countless acts of violence’
Founded in Venezuela, Tren de Aragua has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and is also active in Colombia, Peru and Chile.
Federal prosecutors in New York filed racketeering, drug and firearms charges against the gang leader in December.
“Guerrero Flores has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement when the indictment was announced.
Tren de Aragua, under Guerrero Flores’s leadership, has “committed countless acts of violence, extortion, and drug trafficking all over North America, South America, and Europe”, he said.
The US State Department had offered a $5 million reward for data resulting in his arrest or conviction.
In line with a report by the InSight Crime suppose tank, Guerrero made Tren de Aragua “what it’s at the moment throughout his incarceration at Tocoron”.
Beneath his management, Tocoron “grew to become one of many nation’s most infamous prisons, largely due to the unofficial coverage of the Venezuelan authorities of handing management of sure prisons … over to prison leaders often known as pranes”.
“This freedom and the gang’s prison revenues allowed for the development of a zoo, a swimming pool, a playground, a restaurant, and a nightclub contained in the jail,” the report added.
The joint operation is the most recent signal of bettering ties between Caracas and Washington for the reason that seize of former president Nicolas Maduro by US forces in January. The 2 nations restored diplomatic relations in March, which had been severed in 2019.
The US is within the technique of reactivating its embassy in Caracas.
