Maduro’s regime admitted leaders of criminal gangs terrorizing Caracas escaped

“The violence in Caracas is over,” said Chavista vice president Delcy Rodríguez, but said nothing about “Koki”, “Garbis” and “Vampi”, the bosses of the gang that terrorizes Caracas. The tone of his speech was classic – blaming Colombia and the United States for everything – but he avoided the names of the bosses. Confirmation that they had escaped and that the supposed control the regime claims to have is false came from the voice of Carmen Meléndez, the Minister of the Interior.

The sentence was long, it listed the findings of the Chavista forces in Cota 905, the neighborhood where the gang runs everything. In a hurry to demonstrate her accomplishment, she ended up revealing the most sensitive information: “The lairs they had, they destroyed them before they left, before they escaped.”

So, in the midst of a list of false successes, the regime admitted that Carlos Luis Revete, alias “Koki”, leader of the criminal gang and the other leaders, “Garbis” and “Vampi”, are still at large.

“We have made progress in dismantling the criminal structures that had been installed in these territories, with clear claims to sow terror and shatter the peace of Caracas,” Meléndez wrote on Twitter. “We released citizens who had been kidnapped by anti-socialists,” he insisted, but the gang leaders have yet to be arrested.

Yes Rodriguez accused Leopolo López and Juan Guaidó, the leaders of the opposition, to be at the origin of all the incidents of the last days and, even, affirm that the criminals were trained by Colombia and the United States.

Chavist officials, who shut down the operation while the leaders were still at large, reported that 22 “criminals” were neutralized, and that two policemen and a Bolivarian National Guard were killed in the operation by regime forces , But did not provide data on civilian casualties.

“We regret the death of a sergeant of the National Guard (militarized police) (…) and of three officials of our National Police (…) Also, 22 criminals were neutralized in this operation”, declared Meléndez in its press release. which admitted no journalistic question. The minister did not specify whether the “neutralized”, a word used ambiguously by the authorities, died in the clashes or were detained, although she specified that there were “28 people injured” during the shootings that crippled life in western Caracas for nearly 72 hours.

Impunity pact

Although he has been indicted since 2013 for offenses such as theft, homicide and drug trafficking, “Koki” enjoys great impunity. The non-aggression pact he concluded with the Venezuelan authorities demonstrates the almost total abdication of the state in marginalized neighborhoods controlled by mega-gangs

Cota 905 is one of the most violent areas in Caracas, and there are several urban gangs. For years, the area has been subjected to police violence and arbitrariness, which has aroused a deep antipathy from residents towards security organizations. In this context, the gangs have acquired social power as de facto authorities in the community.

“Koki” rose to prominence as the lieutenant of the gang leader, Jesús Alberto Ramos Caldero, alias “El Chavo”, who in 2014 set out to unite the Caracas gangs against the police. This initiative has contributed to the emergence of a new criminal structure in Venezuela: “mega gangs”, each composed of more than 50 members, are more organized and better armed than traditional street gangs and reproduce the hierarchical structure of gangs. . Venezuela’s prison gangs.

In January 2015, Cota 905 was included in the Maduro government’s “Zones of Peace” program, whereby authorities ceded territorial control to criminal organizations in exchange for their reduction in violence. This truce was broken in July of the same year with the start of Operation Liberation of the People (PLO), proposed by Maduro, which consisted of a strong repression that marked the return of police violence and human rights violations that they suffered. had occurred in the past. The PLO’s first raid on Cota 905 left 15 people dead, only six of whom had criminal records. Revete was not among them, having taken refuge in a prison hours before the raid. He continued to evade capture throughout the operation, fueling the suspicion that the real target of the operation was Revet’s rivals.

The state’s abandonment of Cota 905 turned the area into a criminal enclave, where mega-gangs roamed freely. Although the “pax mafiosa” between gangs and security forces may have reduced violence, it has also enabled gangs like “Koki” to accumulate heavy weapons and consolidate their criminal economies. In 2016, Revete’s gang numbered between 70 and 120 members, who used Cota 905 as a base of operations for extortion, kidnapping and vehicle theft. Although including allied gangs, it can number up to 180 men.

“What the regime intends to do with the Cota 905 affair is a repeated novel, one more program in which they will accuse the democratic alternative. They lie, censor and confuse to hide the reality: their complicity with these armed gangs, ”Guaidó denounced.

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