The Venezuelan non-governmental organization Provea demanded this Sunday “absolute transparency” about the recent coordinated operation between Washington and Caracas in the state of Bolívar, southeast of Venezuela, which culminated in the death of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero”, identified as the top leader of the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua.

The NGO maintained that “Venezuela has the right to know the exact terms, the legal scope and the commanders responsible for the operation,” while requesting verifiable information about the circumstances in which the military and police deployment took place.

Likewise, he stated that, based on the information available so far, the case “allegedly constitutes a clear violation of the country's territorial sovereignty and a serious violation of human rights due to the flagrant commission of an extrajudicial execution.”

Provea also demanded that the Venezuelan State report the precise number of people killed, injured and detained during the operation, as well as the identity of the victims and the procedural guarantees granted.

According to the organization, "the Venezuelan State has the obligation to provide reliable and verifiable information on the human toll of the operation" and to ensure that arbitrary detentions, torture or cruel treatment do not occur.

The NGO recalled that it had already warned about the mega-operation deployed in mining areas of Bolívar state and warned that similar actions in the past left reports of extrajudicial executions and other abuses against the civilian population.

For this reason, he reiterated his request that the Ombudsman's Office and the Public Ministry supervise the actions of the security forces and be held accountable for what happened.

In its position, Provea maintained that the authorities must explain under what legal framework the bilateral cooperation was carried out and demanded “absolute transparency regarding the international agreements that protect this operation and full guarantees that the patterns of extrajudicial executions will not be repeated.”

In the context of the “Niño Guerrero” case, Héctor Guerrero Flores had remained a fugitive since 2023 after escaping during the Tocorón prison intervention and was considered by US authorities to be one of the main leaders of the Aragua Train, an organization with a presence in several Latin American countries.

Washington had offered a million-dollar reward for information leading to its capture and classified it as a foreign terrorist organization.