By Christian Martinez and Jasper Ward
June 12 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday U.S. forces carried out a strike that killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as Niño Guerrero, the leader of Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.
"At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth," Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday evening.
"This action was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well."
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strike was conducted earlier this week and that Guerrero "was confirmed killed during the strike."
Venezuela's information ministry said that during the operation in the country's Bolívar state, there were clashes with members of criminal groups, in which the leader, Guerrero, was neutralized.
The operation involved specialized technological support and was carried out through cooperation and intelligence sharing between authorities of both countries, the ministry said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted Guerrero and other leaders of the Tren de Aragua organization with sanctions over alleged involvement in criminal activities such as illicit drug smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering.
The State Department has designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization.
Trump has claimed Tren de Aragua coordinated its U.S. activities with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has cited the alleged connection to justify deporting some immigrants in the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Tren de Aragua is known for being involved in human trafficking and controls routes taken by Venezuelans and other South American migrants heading south to relatively prosperous Chile and other destinations in South America or Europe.
The group has also been linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, contract killings, smuggling and organized retail theft from Panama to Brazil and along the Andean corridor, Latin American police officials say.
Guerrero escaped from the Tocoron prison in Venezuela along with other gang leaders just before a police raid in 2023.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez and Jasper Ward; Additional reporting by Shivani Tanna; Editing by Sergio Non, Kim Coghill, Rod Nickel)
