After two days of heavy gunfire in eastern Caracas, police officers entered the ‘Cota 905’ area.
Venezuelan security forces have entered certain areas of the capital, Caracas, seeking to end days of deadly fighting with armed gangs.
No official death toll has been reported, but local media say a dozen people, including several passers-by, have lost their lives since clashes between gangsters and police broke out in Caracas’ eastern neighborhoods on Wednesday.
After two days of heavy gunfire, police officers managed to enter the “Cota 905” bar on Friday morning.
“We control the area, but there may still be some snipers,” an agent told AFP news agency.
The Cota 905 neighborhood is the main area of influence for the so-called Koki gang, which this year repeatedly confronted police officers with firearms.
Although so far Koki leaders have evaded the police siege, the government of President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that the dismantling of this criminal organization is underway.
On Thursday, authorities issued search warrants and offered rewards of up to $ 500,000 for gang leaders behind the deadly but now runaway clashes.
“Traumatic”
In parts controlled by the gang, the ground was engulfed in bullet casings on Friday, evidence of thousands of shots fired in two days, according to images on social media.
“I’m going to El Valle [area in southwestern Caracas, where a relative lives], because my kids are scared to be there [in Cota 905]; they were crying, so I don’t want to have them there in the house, ”Marleni, a resident of Cota 905 who did not put a last name, told The Associated Press.
Enrique Alvarez, another resident at Cota 905, said: “We have been experiencing trauma with those people there since yesterday. That’s what I can tell you, a trauma. One is not used to that. “
Interior Minister Carmen Meléndez tweeted about the police publication that “the police have made progress in dismantling the criminal structures established in these territories with the intention of sowing terror.”
The government blames the violence of an alleged opposition plot to “destabilize” Maduro.
“The enemies of the homeland intend to sow anxiety by funding criminal gangs, we will not stand idly by,” Maduro wrote on Twitter. “We are acting strongly, following the laws.”
About 800 security personnel were deployed as part of the operation, which searched pedestrians and homes and seized cars, motorcycles and diesel barrels believed to belong to the gangs.
In June, similar clashes killed at least three people, including a nurse who was the victim of a stray bullet.
In 2020, Venezuela recorded 12,000 violent deaths, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory. This is a rate of 45.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, seven times higher than the world average.
