Venezuela's collaboration with the Trump Administration in this
assasination on Venezuela territory is another confirmation that the
Chavista regime has become a pro-American puppet.
Am 13.06.2026 um 07:33 schrieb Fred Fuentes via groups.io:
Trump says US military strike killed leader of Tren de Aragua gang
with help from Venezuela
By WILL WEISSERT - Associated Press Jun 12
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that a “swift and
lethal kinetic” U.S. strike has killed Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero
Flores, whom he called “the infamous leader” of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Tren de Aragua has been labeled by the United States as a terrorist
organization. Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court
with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending
support to terrorists in crimes that stretched more than a decade,
authorities announced in December.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strike occurred
earlier in the week on a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at the time that the gang is
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.
The U.S. State Department had offered rewards of up to $5 million for
information leading to Guerrero Flores’ arrest.
In a post on his social media site, Trump wrote, “Tren de Aragua
terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else
and, under my leadership, we will find these vicious murderers and
drug lords anytime, anyplace, and send them to the depths of hell
where they belong.” Trump's post referred to Guerrero Flores by his
alias, “Niño Guerrero.”
The post also included unclassified video, shot from above, of a small
building with a green roof exploding.
Hegseth said, “The operation underscores the shared U.S. and
Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny
them any safe haven in our hemisphere.”
Venezuela's government released a statement confirmed its
participation in the operation and revealed it took place in the
southeastern state of Bolivar.
“During the operation, clashes occurred with members of criminal
groups, resulting in the death of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores,
alias ‘Niño Guerrero,’ the leader of one of these criminal
organizations,” according to the statement.
The mineral-rich state, which borders Brazil and Guyana, is home to
large illegal mining operations long controlled by gangs and other
actors who mine with the consent — and to the benefit — of officials
and the military.
Trump has taken a series of extraordinary actions against the gang,
including a series of strikes on small boats his administration has
accused of smuggling drugs to America. At least 207 people have been
killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military in the eastern Pacific
Ocean and Caribbean Sea since the Trump administration began targeting
those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.
Trump and administration officials have consistently blamed Tren de
Aragua for being at the root of the violence and illicit drug dealing
that plague some U.S. cities. The president spent months repeating the
claim — contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment —
that Tren de Aragua had operated under Venezuelan President Nicolás
Maduro’s control. The U.S. whisked Maduro out of Venezuela to face
U.S. drug charges in January.
Tren de Aragua originated more than a decade ago at an infamously
lawless prison with hardened criminals in Venezuela’s central state of
Aragua. The gang has expanded in recent years as millions of
Venezuelans migrated to other Latin American countries or the U.S. in
search of better living conditions.
Guerrero Flores returned to the prison in Aragua for murder and other
convictions in 2013, when Venezuela’s crisis began as corruption,
mismanagement and a drop in crude prices wrecked the oil-dependent
economy. Guerrero Flores and a few other inmates saw a profitable
opportunity as the government neglected prisons.
They assumed control and administration of the prison, establishing a
system that controlled the entire inmate population through force and
extortion. Over time, they transformed the facility into a sort of
city that included a zoo, baseball field, casino and restaurants.
Guerrero Flores had his own lavish suite.
The size of the gang is unclear. Countries with large populations of
Venezuelan migrants, including Peru and Colombia, have accused the
group of being behind a spree of violence in the region. Still, unlike
other criminal organizations from Colombia, Central America and
Brazil, Tren de Aragua has no large-scale involvement in smuggling
cocaine across international borders, according to InSight Crime, a
think tank that tracks crime across Latin America.
In Venezuela, gang leaders have long been known to participate in
various illegal activities, including gold mining and drug trafficking.
The legal mining of gold and other minerals is a component of the
Trump administration's phased plan to turn the crisis-wrecked country
around. In March, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum told
reporters during a visit to Venezuela that the government of acting
President Delcy Rodríguez was giving security assurances to mining
companies interested in investing in the South American country.
Trump campaigned for a second term promising to crack down on
immigration and crime. While polls show his favorability ratings have
sagged on his handling of the economy, immigration remains Trump’s
strongest issue, according to the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research.
Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City contributed.
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