Members of Venezuela's special forces, a body known as FAES that the UN has called for dismantling, in a police operation in Barquisimeto in September 2019.IVAN ALVARADO / Reuters
At least 23 people were killed over the weekend in a clash between police and criminal gangs in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, according to press reports and human rights activists, while the government faces international scrutiny. cause of the murders committed by the security forces.
The bloodshed began Friday afternoon with an operation by two police units: the Special Action Forces, known as FAES, and the Special Tactical Operations Units, known as UOTE in the La Vega neighborhood, dominated by groups criminals, and continued until Saturday.
Activist Marino Alvarado, a member of the rights group PROVEA, wrote on Twitter: "It is, as far as I remember, the 'citizen security' operation with the highest number of victims."
There did not appear to be any deaths in the confrontation on the side of the security forces, according to Alvarado, other activists and a report from Últimas Noticias, a newspaper considered close to the ruling socialist party.
A United Nations fact-finding mission, which concluded that the government of President Nicolás Maduro had committed human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity, called last year for the dissolution of FAES due to its role in extrajudicial executions.
Neither the Venezuelan Ministry of Information nor the chief prosecutor's office immediately responded to requests for comment.
The government says that the report of the UN fact-finding mission was “riddled with falsehoods”.
Venezuela is among the most violent countries in the world, with a homicide rate of 45.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a non-profit organization.
