The working-class neighborhoods of Venezuela’s capital are at the heart of a spiral of violence. Clashes that lasted two days between police and gangs were particularly deadly. Some 22 “delinquents” and four members of the security forces were indeed killed in the west of Caracas, announced Saturday the Minister of the Interior, Carmen Melendez.
Begun on Wednesday evening, these clashes also claimed victims among the population of the neighborhoods concerned, but the minister did not specify the number in her televised address. Some 28 people were also injured, including 18 residents of these neighborhoods, she added. “It was like a war. We protected ourselves and we waited for it to pass, ”a resident said on the spot.
Gang leaders on the run
Nearly 2,500 members of the security forces took part in this operation to reconquer the Cota 905 district. After two days of heavy gunfire, including heavy weaponry, the Venezuelan security forces took over the four “barrios” on Friday. or working-class neighborhoods, in the hands of these gangs, whose leaders are on the run. On Thursday, the police had issued wanted notices against them, including the media “El Koki”. She promised a $ 500,000 reward. The Cota 905 gang sought to prevent law enforcement from entering neighborhoods and disrupting their traffic.
The minister said on Twitter that no less than 20,000 ammunition, three rocket launchers, 26 rifles, including four FAL-type assault rifles, four submachine guns, three grenades and six pistols, had been found. A clandestine drug manufacturing laboratory has also been dismantled.
Colombia and the United States singled out
“We have found a military arsenal of war” from “other countries”, Carmen Melendez also declared on television.
Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez, for her part, announced the arrest of three alleged Colombian “paramilitaries”. The government of President Nicolas Maduro accuses the opposition, the United States and Colombia of being behind the actions of these gangs in order to destabilize it.