Trump Says US Killed Tren de Aragua Leader Niño Guerrero in Joint Strike With Venezuela

President Donald Trump announced that the United States military killed Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, the longtime leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, in a “swift and lethal kinetic strike.”

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero”

BBC

Trump wrote on social media that “At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero,” and CNN reported the strike was conducted earlier this week in collaboration with Venezuelan security forces.

ABC News

Venezuela’s government confirmed its involvement in what it described as a “joint operation,” with CNN citing the communications ministry statement that “During the operation, clashes occurred with members of these criminal structures, resulting in the death of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of a criminal organization,”.

The BBC and DW both tied the killing to the Trump administration’s broader campaign against the gang, with the BBC saying the president accused Tren de Aragua of engaging in “irregular warfare” against the US and DW noting Venezuela confirmed the death during a joint operation in the southeastern state of Bolivar.

Trump said the strike was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well,” and CNN reported that the CIA provided intelligence for the operation.

CNN quoted Venezuela’s communications ministry describing the operation as clashes that resulted in the death of Guerrero Flores, while the BBC said Venezuelan authorities confirmed their involvement in a “joint operation” and described it as intelligence sharing.B

Al Jazeera

The BBC also reported that the Trump administration has sought to tighten ties with Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, including lifting sanctions and pushing to collaborate on the extraction of Venezuela’s oil reserves, after the US seized Nicolás Maduro from his compound in January to face criminal charges in New York.B

The BBC further described how US forces have launched dozens of strikes on boats they say are part of a large-scale operation to ferry drugs into the US, and it noted that “Some legal experts have argued that the strikes could violate international law by targeting civilians without offering them due process,” while the Trump administration said the killings are lawful.B

With Guerrero Flores dead, the sources frame the next phase as an intensified effort to deny Tren de Aragua “safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else,” a line Trump used in his Truth Social post.

“Rewards of up to $5 million (€4.32 million) had been offered by the US State Department”

DW

DW reported that the US State Department offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores’ arrest, and it said Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications confirmed the death during clashes in the southeastern state of Bolivar.

NBC News added that the State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025, and it described Guerrero Flores as charged in December with racketeering conspiracy and lending support to terrorists, with federal prosecutors calling him “the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization.”

Looking beyond the strike, the BBC said the US has sought to tighten ties with Delcy Rodríguez and collaborate on Venezuela’s oil reserves, while CNN reported that the gang’s reach has stretched through Latin America and even to Spain, where Guerrero’s brother was arrested in March 2024.B