A United States military airstrike carried out by US Southern Command killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero and identified by US authorities as the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, President Donald Trump announced on June 12, 2026. Trump disclosed the operation in a Truth Social post that included a video appearing to show a projectile striking a building and causing it to erupt in flames. Trump described the operation as a 'swift and lethal kinetic' strike and said it was coordinated with the Venezuelan government.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said US forces struck a Tren de Aragua compound inside Venezuela to carry out the attack. Independent confirmation of Guerrero Flores's death from Venezuelan authorities had not been immediately available at the time of reporting. Guerrero Flores had been charged in December by the United States with racketeering conspiracy and lending support to terrorists, among other offences, and the State Department had offered up to a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. The State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025.
The strike is the latest development in a transformed US-Venezuela relationship that followed a US military intervention on January 3, 2026, in which US forces captured incumbent Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Maduro and Flores were transported to New York City and pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in Manhattan federal court on January 5, 2026. By February 2026, the United States and Venezuela had restarted diplomatic relations, with the US Embassy in Caracas reopening for the first time since 2019. In May 2026, interim Venezuelan authorities had collaborated with the United States on operations against Tren de Aragua-linked targets.
On January 29, 2026, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control lifted various oil-related sanctions on Venezuela, authorising US companies to buy, sell, transport, store and refine Venezuelan crude oil. Chevron (CVX) is the only US oil major with active operations in Venezuela and holds joint ventures with PDVSA responsible for approximately 23% of the country's oil output, according to JPMorgan analyst Arun Jayaram [Source: CNBC]. Exxon Mobil (XOM) and ConocoPhillips (COP) had assets seized by Venezuela in a 2007 nationalisation; according to CNBC, Maduro's overthrow could pave the way for those companies to recover those assets. Venezuela holds an estimated 303 billion barrels of oil reserves, representing approximately 17% of the global total, according to the US Energy Information Administration [Source: CNBC], though current production stands at around 800,000 barrels per day, according to Kpler data [Source: CNBC].
Guerrero Flores had a lengthy criminal history in Venezuela. Prosecutors allege he initially operated Tren de Aragua out of Tocorón Prison, directing gang members on the outside and collecting fees from their activities. He escaped from Tocorón Prison in 2012, was rearrested a year later, sentenced to a 17-year term in 2018, and escaped again in 2023.
Sources: Sky News, Bloomberg, BBC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNBC, Wikipedia