Us Kills Venezuela’s Tren De Aragua Leader In Military Strike, Trump Says

Héctor Guerrero, the leader of the Venezuelan drug trafficking gang Tren de Aragua, was killed in a U.S. military strike, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump posted a 10-second video of what appeared to be the explosion of a small structure hit from the air. He did not explain how Guerrero’s death was confirmed or whether anyone else was killed in the strike.

Trump said the “action was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post that the strike was carried out earlier this week at a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.

Trump often cited Tren de Aragua on the campaign trail, accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of allowing members to enter the U.S. through lax border policies. Under Biden, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the gang in July 2024 and offered a $12 million reward for the arrest of three of its leaders, including Guerrero.

While Trump has faced criticism from lawmakers and human rights groups for carrying out dozens of deadly attacks on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific operated by suspected drug smugglers, the president defended the use of military tactics against large international trafficking operations.

“I delivered on my promise to…wage war against the Cartels, who have long been waging war against our Citizens, while weak leaders left America helpless and defensive,” Trump wrote.

Guerrero, 42, was facing at least two indictments in the U.S. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Manhattan last year on drug, gun and terrorism charges. He was also charged earlier this year in a similar indictment in Manhattan against then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Those charges were released just after a U.S. military operation captured Maduro and brought him to the U.S.