Power cut and more shootings: another night of violence in Caracas due to clash between police and criminal gangs

A new night of horror was experienced at dawn this Friday in Caracas, where clashes between criminal gangs and security agents have not ceased. The shooting intensified after a power failure occurred after midnight in the areas where the criminals operate.

The armed crossing, which began last Wednesday afternoon, is keeping residents of the western Venezuelan capital in anxiety. So far, regime authorities have remained silent on the number of deaths and injuries. However, it has been learned that so far eight Venezuelans have died, including two police officers and more than 15 people have been injured as a result of the clashes.

“Shots are ringing (…) right now, shots are ringing” described by phone Efe a 23-year-old man from the Prados de María area who prefers not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

He explained that while holding the conversation, The Bolivarian National Guard (GNB, militarized police) was in one of the avenues confronting the gangs and pulling forward to reclaim space.

The life of the inhabitants of the various districts of Caracas, near the district “Cota 905” is “paralyzed” and “Something as simple as going to throw the garbage,” they cannot do, continued the neighbor of Santa Rosalía.

“I hadn’t realized it, they were such awe-inspiring detonations that I thought it was a political event and that they were launching fireworks, it was not normal for a explosion be so loud “said the resident of a neighborhood used to living with the violence caused by clashes between gangs and police.

Wednesday, he explained, they were ringing “Some detonations which were continuous until 10 o’clock in the evening with very short braking of half an hour”, but they multiplied on Thursday.

THE ATTACK ON THE NATIONAL GUARD

The new passage between the security forces in Caracas left eight dead until Thursday afternoon, including two police officers. Criminal gangs They attacked the headquarters of the General Command of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) in El Paraíso, in the Venezuelan capital.

The event was recorded in a video recorded from inside the military headquarters. In the footage, several soldiers are hiding behind barricades made of sandbags, and dozens of gunfire can be heard.

The Acting President Juan Guaido accused the Chavist dictatorship of being a promoter of the situation in Caracas: “These gangs were armed and justified by the dictatorship as ‘zones of peace’ for social control. Today they are the total absence of control which endangers the life of all and reflects the kidnapping and the absence of the State in daily life ”.

“Will the armed forces continue in parades and exhibitions or will they play their part?” Will he continue to cede territory and defend criminals or will he exercise his sovereignty and enforce the constitution? “added the Leader of the Opposition.

In the context of these criminal attacks which have intensified since December 2020, the Minister of the Interior and Justice of the Venezuelan dictatorship, Carmen MelendezOn this occasion, he spoke of an “impeccable operation” with more than 1,400 officials which made 38 detainees.

Faced with the new conflict, the official told the Venezuelan opposition to participate in the events. “At this stage, there is no doubt about the direct complicity, the funding and the collaboration, with the planning, the supply of weapons, the communicational support, by the sectors of the Venezuelan right, with the international complicity”he wrote on Twitter.

Likewise, the Maduro regime on Thursday released photographs with the names of some of the leaders of these gangs with rewards ranging from $ 50,000 to $ 500,000. Among them is Carlos Luis Revete, alias “el Koki”; Garbis Ochoa Ruiz, alias “el Galvis”, and Carlos Calderón Martínez, alias “el Vampi”, all accused of murder.

Meanwhile, anguish grows among the townspeople. One of the neighbors, who lives in an apartment in the Santa Rosalía area, told Efe that he lives with his mother and an aunt, both in their sixties, who “are quite upset” by the situation.

“What is in me is uncertainty because I do not know what will happen”, added the young man, who stressed that he avoided walking near the windows of his apartment for fear of a stray bullet, especially in “the main room (which) faces the street”.

Several local media reported that some passers-by and shopkeepers in the area were injured by stray bullets.

Since the start of the clashes, and despite the lack of official information, many videos have circulated on social networks in which we can see and hear incessant bursts of gunfire. without knowing the reasons why the clashes started.

(With information from EFE)

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