“Grenades woke us up”: chilling testimonies of clashes between criminal gangs and Maduro forces in Caracas

An armored police vehicle drives a car through a narrow street in a district of Caracas, during an operation this Friday to regain control of the premises after nearly two days of clashes with criminal gangs.

There are no official figures of dead or injured in the shootings which began on Wednesday in the west of the Venezuelan capital. Local media reporting a dozen dead, among officials, criminals and civilians hit by stray bullets.

“We have made progress in dismantling the criminal structures that had settled in these territories, with clear claims to sow terror and break the peace of Caracas, ”Interior Minister Carmen Meléndez wrote on Twitter. “We freed citizens who had been kidnapped by antisocials.”

About 800 officials are part of the operation to capture the Cota 905, a neighborhood where the gang known as “Koki” operates, for which the government is offering a reward of $ 500,000 for the information that allows it to be captured.

“It was like a war! We protected ourselves and waited for this to happen“He told the news agency AFP Jesus king, a 40-year-old mechanic who lives in the neighborhood.

“They were shooting everywhere“said a young woman, who asked to keep her name safe.”We entered a brick house. There were 50 of us. We waited all night until this morning calmed down and we could go out.“He added.

“Powerful form”

Minister Meléndez posted photographs of improvised trenches with sandbags and guard posts built with logs and canvas roofs at Cota 905.

Authorities searched several houses in search of “Koki” and other gang lieutenants, who allegedly fled the area.

Journalists specializing in the source of Events They posted videos of areas of the occupied area, where the ground is covered with a carpet of cartridge cases, as well as buckets of ammunition.

Large caliber weapons, grenades, tracer bullets as well as drones were used in the clashes. with which the gangs had an overview of the areas they controlled.

The regime links the clashes with these gangs, which have also affected other areas in western Caracas, with an alleged opposition plot to “destabilize” Nicolás Maduro.

“The enemies of the country intend to sow anxiety through the funding of criminal gangs, we will not stand idly by,” Maduro wrote on Twitter. “We act with force, respecting the laws.”

“The grenades woke us up”

Neighbors in areas affected by the shooting abandoned their homes and sought refuge with friends and relatives. Due to road blockages, many walked several kilometers to points such as the Caracas land terminal to leave the city..

More than 160 organizations denounced in a press release “the appearance of the phenomenon of internal displacement” following the clashes. Among them, the NGO Otro Enntación collects everything from mattresses to food to house children and adolescents fleeing Cota 905.

“Since we left our bags have been searched at various police checkpoints.», Tells a resident of Cota 905 in AFP with reservation, he took a bus to San Juan de Los Morros, in the state of Guárico, about 130 km from Caracas. “I’m leaving very worried because the rest of my family are staying”.

Sonia mota, a 51-year-old teacher, also plans to leave the capital for Guarenas, a dormitory town about 30 km away. “This morning the pomegranates woke us up“, He said. “It’s terrible to live in this distress”.

Mota lives in El Cementerio, a neighborhood near Cota 905, where on Friday a hostage-taking was recorded with suspected criminals who were injured by police as they tried to flee the area.

In June, another clash between police and gangs left at least three people dead.

Venezuela recorded 12,000 deaths in acts of violence in 2020 according to the NGO Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia (OVV), a rate of 45.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, seven times higher than the world average.

(With information from AFP)

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