ALERT: ‘Niño Guerrero’: rise and fall of the leader of the Aragua Train, killed in a US and Venezuelan operation
Latest Developments:
Governments, analysts, and media outlets are continuing to follow this situation closely as additional details become available.
Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores – alias ‘Niño Guerrero’ – was killed in a “rapid and lethal” operation by the US army in the Venezuelan state of Bolívar, according to US President Donald Trump on Friday, June 12, before the Venezuelan Executive confirmed the news. At 43 years old, he had become the leader of the Aragua Train, a criminal gang that began operating after 2010, expanded through multiple Latin American countries and was classified by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization in 2025. A life of crime and escapes Guerrero Flores grew up in the popular neighborhoods of the city of Maracay, in the state of Aragua, in central Venezuela, where he was born on May 30, 1983, according to the offer. reward from the US State Department, which offered up to five million dollars for information leading to his location. ‘Niño Guerrero’ was linked to micro-trafficking and violent crimes from a very young age. His criminal record began in 2005, when he was accused of murdering a police officer who wanted to stop the vehicle in which he was traveling, according to records from the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela. That investigation led to his imprisonment for the first time in 2010, in the Aragua Penitentiary Center, known as the Tocorón prison, which years later would become the cradle and main headquarters of the Aragua Train. Photograph provided by the Government of Venezuela that shows the arrest record of the leader of the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as ‘Niño Guerrero’. © EFE – Government of Venezuela In 2012, Guerrero Flores escaped from Tocorón with the help of family and officials. A year later, he was recaptured in Barquisimeto and imprisoned again in Tocorón. It was then that the consolidation of the Aragua Train began with the control of that prison, after the government of Nicolás Maduro, in the midst of a socioeconomic crisis, ceded control of some prisons to criminal gangs. ‘Niño Guerrero’ came to be considered one of the three “pranes”, which is the name given to the criminal bosses who control a prison in Venezuela. In fact, he remodeled Tocorón to his liking to build a swimming pool, a zoo, a baseball field, a nightclub, a playground and restaurants. Guerrero Flores had his own luxurious room. Weapons confiscated in the Tocorón prison (Venezuela), displayed at a press conference at the doors of the prison, on September 21, 2023. © Yuri Cortez – AFP After a large police raid in September 2023 to regain control of the prison, it was revealed that ‘Niño Guerrero’ had escaped from prison, after being alerted to the operation, according to reports from Venezuelan civil society. In 2024, Nicolás Maduro publicly identified him as an actor captured by the CIA, accusing the United States, without evidence, of using him in an alleged destabilizing plan. In July 2025, the US Treasury Department sanctioned ‘Niño Guerrero’ and five other Aragua Train leaders, including ‘Johan Petrica’, whom Washington accuses of directing the group’s illegal mining activities in Venezuela and providing it with military-grade weapons. From prison gang to transnational criminal network Extortion of inmates and bribery of prison officials were the founding activities of the Tren de Aragua, established more than a decade ago in the Tocorón prison. However, under the command of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the group went from being a prison extortion gang to one of the most persecuted criminal organizations on the continent. That expansion began with the control of entire territories in the state of Aragua, such as the San Vicente neighborhood in Maracay, where it established strict social control and coordinated criminal activities. Their tentacles expanded to at least five more states: Carabobo, Sucre, Guárico, Lara and Bolívar, where they have carried out various illegal activities, including illegal gold mining and drug trafficking. During this emergence in the interior of Venezuela, the Tren de Aragua “expanded its criminal portfolio” to include kidnapping, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, migrant trafficking, smuggling, retail drug trafficking, cybercrime and robbery, according to the x-ray of the criminal group prepared by the nonprofit foundation and think tank Insight Crime. Image taken from a video published by US President Donald Trump in which, according to him, a fatal attack against the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang in Venezuela is shown. © – / US President Donald Trump’s TRUTH Social account/AFP Starting in 2018, the criminal gang began to operate in Colombia and, later, in Chile and Peru, with specific appearances and branches in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and the United States. The expansion of criminal operations on a continental scale was driven by the flight of the organization’s leaders to neighboring countries. One of them was Larry Amaury Álvarez, alias ‘Larry Changa’, who escaped to Chile and, later, to Colombia, where he led the expansion of the group, before being captured in the department of Quindío (Colombia) in July 2024. The gang has established itself in cities with large populations of Venezuelan migrants, such as Bogotá, Lima and Santiago de Chile. Authorities in those countries have detained hundreds of their members since 2022, according to InSight Crime data. Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Colombian police escort an alleged member of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua to a police station in Bogotá on February 6, 2025. © Fernando Vergara, AP In Colombia, the Tren de Aragua clashed with other criminal organizations, including the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), against whom it fought for control of the crossings clandestine border crossings, key for the passage of smuggling. In addition, he bribed officials and illegally transferred Venezuelan migrants who arrived in Colombia due to the economic and social crisis in Venezuela. Although there are no estimates on the number of members of the gang, InSight Crime lists it as “the most powerful criminal structure in Venezuela” and “a threat of a transnational nature with an extensive criminal portfolio.” With the return of Donald Trump to power, the White House designated several Latin American criminal groups, including the Tren de Aragua, as terrorist organizations. On that basis, the president invoked the Foreign Enemies Law of 1798 and ordered the deportation to El Salvador of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants identified for their alleged links with the criminal organization. The death of ‘Niño Guerrero’ raises questions about how the Tren de Aragua will handle the succession of power, a process that in other criminal groups has led to lethal internal confrontations. The episode also occurs at a time of growing operational rapprochement between the United States and Venezuela: Washington has gone from planning military operations against Chavismo to executing them with the support of Caracas. With information from EFE and local media
Why This Matters:
Analysts believe this development may influence future diplomatic, political, or economic discussions internationally.
Global audiences continue following the story closely as regional responses begin to emerge.
Follow our coverage for more global news and international analysis.
Source: This article was originally published by France 24 – Noticias y actualidad internacional en vivo and adapted for our international English-speaking audience.
Read the original article here.