The latest escalation of police-gang clashes in Caracas last week left more than 20 people dead as authorities try to crack down on criminal gangs seeking to expand their territory amid a power vacuum created by a lack of police.
Also, Venezuela is currently engulfed in a political, economic and humanitarian crisis, the world media write.
"Liberation of citizens"
Venezuelan officials announced that 22 gang members and four police officers were killed in two days of clashes in the capital, Caracas, while an unspecified number of civilians were killed and nearly 40 people were injured, the BBC reports, stressing that hundreds of members of the security forces are searching for gang leaders who want to expand. its territory.
Interior Minister Carmen Melendez said on Saturday, July 10, that the police "made progress in breaking the criminal structures present in those territories with the intention of sowing terror."
She pointed out that the policemen released the citizens who were kidnapped by the gangs and that they will remain deployed "as long as necessary".
Local human rights groups called for a de-escalation of the violence, expressing "deep concern for the lives and safety" of local residents.
Describing the clash between police and gangs, one resident said it was "like a war".
The government accuses the opposition of organizing violence with the help of foreign powers in order to destabilize President Nicolas Maduro.
However, as the BBC points out, opposition media houses said that the government was to blame for this, adding that the editorial of El Nasional stated that the strength of the gangs "is the result of [the government] giving these criminals all kinds of advantages".
According to the British public service, Venezuela has been in the grip of a crisis for years with increasingly pronounced political discontent, further fueled by hyperinflation, power outages and shortages of food and medicine.
Critics say basic services, such as policing, health care and road maintenance, have been neglected.
A major offensive
The entry of Venezuelan security forces into four poor neighborhoods of Caracas was the first time in several years that the authorities launched a major offensive against the heavily armed gangs that de facto control parts of the capital, according to Agence France-Presse.
Authorities on Thursday (July 9) issued search warrants and offered rewards of up to $500.000 for the gang bosses behind last week's deadly clashes who are on the run.
The very next day, AFP points out, about 800 members of the security forces were deployed searching pedestrians and houses and confiscating cars, motorcycles and diesel stocks believed to belong to the gangs.
In parts of the gang-controlled neighborhood of Kota 905, the ground was littered with bullet casings on Friday, which AFP estimated was evidence of thousands of shots fired over two days.
At least three people were killed in similar clashes in June, including a nurse who was killed by a stray bullet.
Venezuela has one of the highest rates of violence on the planet, AFP points out, adding that in 2020, the organization that monitors violence in Venezuela reported 12.000 violent deaths, which is 45,6 per 100.000 inhabitants, or seven times the global average.
Maduro's struggle
As the economy slumps for an eighth consecutive year in one of the deepest recessions in world history, Venezuela's government has virtually lost control of large swathes of land to local mobsters and Colombian guerrillas, Bloomberg wrote, noting that the latest round of infighting shows how the Maduro administration is struggling to maintain influence over the poor. neighborhoods of the capital that were once under the firm control of his supporters.
"The enemies of the homeland intend to sow anxiety by funding criminal gangs," Maduro said in a tweet on Friday, adding that authorities would not stand by and would use force "in accordance with the law and the constitution to guarantee security."
It's unclear what sparked the latest violence, but the government has offered a half-million-dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of Carlos Luis Rivete, aka "Coqui," who they say is the leader of Caracas' most powerful gang, and has also offered the same reward for two more gang leaders.
Blumberg adds, the government negotiated a truce with some gangs in 2013 and set up so-called 'peace zones' where the security forces did not enter.
This has turned neighborhoods like Kota 905 into areas controlled by criminals who operate through extortion, kidnapping and drug trafficking.
On Thursday, the authorities sent special forces known as FAES to those zones, which, according to Bloomberg, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, previously accused of carrying out extrajudicial executions and recommended their disbandment.
"Sounds" of Kabul
Some analysts believe that gangs in Venezuela are trying to gain greater territorial control amid a vacuum in the balance of power fueled by a lack of police work, while residents of neighborhoods controlled by gangs often resent the violence carried out by the police, according to the Washington Post.
In recent years, Maduro has strengthened his control over state institutions, but, the paper emphasizes, he is still struggling to establish state control in long-neglected parts of the country, including in the capital.
Following the government's decision in 2013 to withdraw security forces as part of the "zones of peace" policy, gangs jumped into certain neighborhoods and now hold a monopoly of power in the area.
Settlements like Kota 905, home to about 300.000 people, are run by large criminal gangs made up of several smaller ones that, according to the Washington Post, exercise social control through non-violent means such as handing out food and giving toys to children during public holidays.
"They basically operate under a feudal system that provides some sense of normalcy to the people," said Luis Izquiel, a lawyer and professor of criminology at the Central University of Venezuela.
Recently, the paper adds, there have been protests by women demanding the withdrawal of the police from Kota 905, demanding an end to the violence.
For Paola Bautista de Aleman, president of the Venezuelan think tank Institut FORMA, people's skepticism towards state actors stems from the violent ways they have tried to regain control.
"And now we see people who have suffered at least 48 hours of pure violence," she said.
The shooting forced many residents of the Kota 905 neighborhood to spend time in basements, bathrooms or elevators—reminding them of war-torn zones abroad.
"It sounded like Kabul," said local journalist Pedro Pablo Peñaloza.
On the other hand, the Washington Post points out, Maduro hailed the operation in the most populous neighborhood of Caracas as a victory.
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