Shortly after 9 p.m. on Friday, US President Donald Trump made an unusual announcement on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump said that the US and Venezuela had collaborated to kill Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as “Niño Guerrero” and identified as the top leader of the notorious criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which the US designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization early on in Trump’s second term.
The attack on Guerrero Flores was “swift and lethal,” Trump announced, adding that under his leadership, the US will “find these vicious murderers and drugs lords anytime, anyplace, and send them to the depths of hell where they belong.”
In his post, Trump included a 10-second video of the alleged assassination, showing a bird’s-eye view of a building with a galvanized metal roof being blown apart.
The government of Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said in a separate statement that the joint operation was carried out “in the southeast of Bolívar state” in Venezuela, adding that the US and Venezuela had exchanged both intelligence and specialized technical support.
