Posted on 07/09/2021 7:36:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Heavily armed criminal groups have moved in the past month to residential and commercial areas from slums in the city’s hills, and violence has exploded over the past 24 hours with firefights breaking out in at least five populous neighborhoods.
President Nicolás Maduro’s government has not mentioned any casualties as a result of the clashes. Human rights activists in the area have said at least four civilians were killed on Wednesday and half a dozen have been wounded.
The gangs want to control one of the main corridors linking the capital with the west of the country, said a human rights activist based in one of the affected neighborhoods.
“It’s been the same conflict for months,” said the activist, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Analysts say gangs in Cota 905 have been able to operate with ease as it has been a no-go zone for security forces due to a pact with the government to lower violence. Experts say the gangs took the opportunity to acquire military-grade firepower such as grenade launchers, assault weapons and drones.
Inés Candida, 56, lives in the middle-class neighborhood El Paraíso, just across a highway from the Cota 905 barrio. She said gangs had been in shootouts with the police every day for the past month, but she had not seen or heard anything like the past 24 hours.
“We are prisoners in our own homes,” she said by telephone, as unrelenting gunshots rang out in the background.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The government is just another rival gang.
Wait Wait Wait Wait.......I’m confused.
I thought Venezuela was a socialist paradise. What happened? How can there be trouble there, let alone gangs?
Also, guns are illegal. Are the gangs aware that guns are illegal for citizens to possess? Surely they will hand over their guns is somebody just explains that they’re not allowed to have them. That will solve everything, right?
Somebody wasn’t getting “their cut” of the drug money.
I suspect these “gangs” are really freedom fighters. See what I mean about these people we call police? They will fight anyone for a paycheck.
Translated to Ebonics that would be :We jus’ chillin’ ya know, waitin’ on da chits, know what I’m sayin’? Den’ be like POW, POW, POW all da m’fers be cappin’, shootin’ dey guns, know what I’m sayin’?
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