Between 2016 and 2025, Venezuelan officials killed at least six leaders of major criminal gangs, including Koki, Conejo, Picure, and Wilexis, in operations described by human rights organizations as staged confrontations. Crime scenes were altered, execution-style killings were fabricated, and the bodies were immediately cremated.
The practice of extrajudicial killings is not limited to leaders of criminal organizations. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), between 2016 and 2019, the Special Action Forces (FAES) were responsible for 17,000 deaths due to “resistance to authority,” leading the OHCHR to recommend their dismantling. Although they were replaced by the Directorate of Strategic and Tactical Actions (DAET), their lethality did not decrease. According to Provea, Bolívar state, the site of the recent assassination of the Tren de Aragua leader, already ranked third in the country for extrajudicial killings in 2017 with 74 victims, representing 14.7% of the national total. Between 2017 and 2025, the mining region of Bolívar state has been the target of at least four large-scale military operations, ostensibly against illegal mining, resulting in dozens of deaths under unclear circumstances. These operations have been described as “clean-up operations” or “government change.”
In this context of recurring executions carried out by Venezuelan military forces, with the aim of reorganizing the forces that control illegal mining, an operation took place on June 12 that ended the life of Héctor Guerrero, alias “Niño Guerrero,” leader of the Tren de Aragua. There are two differences compared to previous executions. First, this operation was carried out by foreign forces, to the point that the head of Southern Command expressed “gratitude to the Venezuelan security forces for their support in the successful joint operation against a Tren de Aragua complex,” suggesting a subordination of Venezuelan officials to orders issued by the U.S. This would explain why Venezuela’s statement was only issued after Trump and other members of his administration reported Guerrero’s death. Second, the labeling of the executed man as a “terrorist” was an attempt to justify his killing through a disproportionate action and to remove him from judicial oversight, despite video documentation showing that he was not resisting at the time of the attack.
This practice has already been carried out by the U.S. in various locations in the Caribbean Sea since September 2025, resulting in more than 200 deaths in 62 operations, but this is the first on Venezuelan territory, although it is the third unauthorized military incursion by U.S. forces. The National Assembly (AN) has not opened a debate on any of these incursions, despite the fact that they have not been authorized by it.
It is alarming to observe that even high-ranking spokespeople for the Venezuelan opposition have expressed support for the actions of the Southern Command in Bolívar state, as if the label of terrorism were a license to kill people outside the law. The opposition seems to forget that some 2,400 people were labeled “terrorists” when they took to the streets to protest the fraudulent presidential election of July 2014, and most of them still face open trials, restrictions on their rights, and constant defamation. The most recent case is that of 16-year-old Samantha Hernández, whom the president of the AN has again mentioned after her release from prison, claiming that she “was carrying the explosives to blow up Plaza Venezuela.” No accusation of terrorism can justify removing people from the protection of the law.
The execution of Guerrero does not end the presence of armed groups in southern Venezuela. The question remains as to the degree of complicity the de facto government will have in the face of further unauthorized incursions by a foreign power to continue annihilating, one by one, all the real or alleged members of the irregular armed groups that have dominated gold mining, in the name of the fight against terrorism, which is nothing more than a new “change of government” to control the gold business that continues to exploit blood gold.
Some of the irregular armed groups present in the area are of Colombian origin, and given the prospect of the rise of a president who has openly criticized previous peace processes in Colombia, it is to be expected that these foreign irregular groups will seek to continue using Venezuela as their safe haven or strategic rear area, which could increase the risk of an armed conflict focused on southern Venezuela.
The international community, and especially multilateral organizations and the US Congress, must pay close attention to the evolving dynamics for control of gold mining areas in Venezuela, demand accountability from those responsible for military actions, and activate mechanisms to prevent an escalation of the conflict.