the gangs weaken the power of Nicolás Maduro in the poor neighborhoods of Caracas

From the presidential palace, President Nicolás Maduro periodically takes charge of radio and television broadcasts to deliver speeches that they intend to project stability in the face of a collapsing country.

But as the Venezuelan state disintegrates under the weight of Maduro’s corrupt leadership and US sanctions, its government is lose control of segments of the country, even within its stronghold: the capital, Caracas.

Nowhere is the weakening of its control over the territory more evident than at Cota 905, an emergency village climb the side of a steep mountain overlooking the golden halls from which Maduro addresses the nation.

In the labyrinth of huts that make up Cota 905 and the adjacent municipalities of El Cementerio and La Vega, where around 300,000 people live, the capital’s largest gang have settled in the power vacuum left by a decaying nation: delivering food to those in need, helping pay for drugs and funerals, supplying sports teams and sponsoring music concerts. On holidays, give out toys and build bouncy castles for the kids.

Territory controlled by the gang it is forbidden to the police. And, according to a local police commander, with access to grenade launchers, drones and high-speed motorcycles, gang members are better armed and better paid than most Venezuelan security forces.

They deliver brutal justice: thieves caught in areas they control get shot in the hand. Domestic abusers receive a warning; repeat offenders are shot, neighbors say. And the gang members who try to leave this underworld are hunted down like traitors.

But many who live under his control say the gangster government it’s better than anarchy and the violence that prevailed before they took control. Neighbors say they have no hope that the government will help them.

Real power

“Most of us prefer to live like this,” said Belkys, a Cota resident who asked to be identified only by first name for fear of reprisal from the gang. “We don’t see a real solution“.

The absence of the government has been a reality in much of Venezuela for the past few years. Faced with economic collapse, Maduro gradually abandoned basic functions government in much of the country – among other things, police surveillance, road maintenance, medical care, and public services – to allocate dwindling resources to Caracas, where the political, business and military elites who make up their residence reside. base of support.

Entrenched in his fortified residences in Caracas, Maduro crushed the opposition, carried out a purge of the security forces to eliminate dissent and enriched his friends in order to put an end to the questioning of his authoritarian government.

In remote areas, there are areas of the national territory that have fallen into the hands of criminals and insurgents. But gang control in Cota 905 and surrounding neighborhoods, located just two miles from the Presidential Palace, is proof that his government it loses power even in the center of the capital.

Across the city, other armed groups have also claimed responsibility. territorial control on working-class neighborhoods.

“Maduro is often seen as a traditional strongman who controls all aspects of Venezuelan life,” said Rebecca Hanson, a sociologist at the University of Florida who studies violence in Venezuela. “In fact, the state has become very fragmentary, very chaotic and in many areas very weak.

As the government’s arrival in the poor neighborhoods of Caracas waned, organized crime flourished, forcing Maduro officials to negotiate with larger gangs. to limit violence and maintain political control, according to interviews with a dozen neighbors, as well as police, officials and academics who study violence.

During this process, the most organized gangs began to replace the state in their community, take over from the police, social services and even the application of measures against the pandemic.

In the arms

Police say the gang that controls the Cota 905 is now about 400 armed men with the proceeds of drug trafficking, kidnappings and extortion, and that it exercises full control over at least 20 square kilometers of the heart of the capital.

Gang members armed with automatic weapons openly patrol the streets of the neighborhood and surrounding communities and guard entry points from the towers located on the ceilings. The first checkpoint appears a short drive from Maduro secret police headquarters.

When the Venezuelan economy began to collapse, the Cota gang began offering economic support to the community, replacing Maduro’s bankrupt social programs, which at one point provided the poor with food, shelter and school supplies free of charge.

After monopolizing local drug trafficking, the Cota 905 gang imposed strict rules on residents in exchange for an end to previously rampant violence and petty crime. And many locals praise its hard line against crime.

“Thugs used to steal,” said Ojeda, a Cota 905 resident who, like other members of the community, demanded that his full name not be released for fear of running into gang members. “Now, they are the ones who make you, without fail, all that disappears. “

During his tenure, Maduro moved from brutal repression of organized criminal groups to conciliation in an attempt to slow down increasing crime.

In 2013, he withdrew the security forces from a dozen hotspots, including Cota 905, calling them “zones of peace”, to try to appease the gangs. Two years later, as this policy failed to curb crime, it launched a wave of brutal police raids on the slums.

Police operations have resulted in thousands of extrajudicial executions, according to the United Nations, leading Maduro to be charged with crimes against humanity and hatred of many villagers. Before the assault, gangs have closed ranks and created organizations increasingly large and complex, according to Hanson and his colleague, researcher Verónica Zubillaga.

Failing to defeat the Cota gang, the Maduro government has again negotiated with its leaders, according to a police commander and two government officials who have held talks with the gang and they worked to motorize the chords.

Security forces again they are prohibited from entering the communityaccording to the police commander, who is not authorized to speak about state policy and has done so on condition of anonymity.

Under the deal with the government, the Cota gang reduced kidnappings and killings and began implementing some state policies. During the pandemic, gang members strictly enforced containment rules and the use of face masks, local residents said. Yes the group works with the government to distribute the few remaining food and school supplies to residents, neighbors and the two officials said.

Money and food

“The gang is focused on the community,” said Antonio García, a resident of the village. “They make sure we get our food bag“.

Ojeda said he received $ 300 from the gang at Carnival to buy toys and candy for his family, a fortune in a country where the monthly minimum wage has dropped to around $ 2. Neighbors said young people in the community are offered jobs as lookouts or shelter guards for $ 50 to $ 100 a week, more than most doctors and engineers in Venezuela earn.

Accepting these jobs is easier than quitting. Shortly after Ramírez’s eldest son – who didn’t want to give his full name out of fear of the gang – started working as a lookout on Cota 905, he discovered that his life now belonged to the gang.

“I had new clothes, new shoesBut I couldn’t stop crying, “Ramírez said.” I wanted to go home and I couldn’t.

Protests against the government are prohibited in the neighborhood, and gang members summon neighbors to visit polling stations during elections, residents said.

The deputies “tell us that if the government is toppled, we would also be affected, because the police would come back“Said Ana Castro, a resident of La Cota.” The ‘Zone of Peace’ would end and we would all suffer. “

Privately, some government officials defend the non-aggression pacts with larger gangs, claiming that this policy has significantly reduced violence.

Violent deaths in poor neighborhoods of Caracas have halved since the mid-2010s, while the Venezuelan capital was one of the cities with the most murders in the world, according to figures from a local non-profit organization, Mi Convive.

But academics and analysts who study crime in the city argue that the drop in homicides talks about the rise of gangs in Caracas in the face of an increasingly weak government. The imbalance, experts say, places the government and the population in an increasingly dangerous and vulnerable position.

The transfer of power became evident in April, when the Cota gang shot a police patrol car and he took over a section of the highway that crosses Caracas. The district is a five-minute drive from the Presidential Palace and the blockade paralyzed the capital for several hours.

But the government has remained silent During the whole process. The security forces never came to take the highway back. After the gang pulled out, the police quietly removed the wreckage from the patrol car.

The New York Times

Isayen Herrera and Anatoly Kurmanaev

PB