The Koki gang sows panic in Caracas

The southwest of Caracas has lived for 72 hours under a hail of bullets.

Carlos Luis Revete, alias

Koki

, and his gang of criminals from the neighborhoods of Cota 905, El Valle, La Vega and El Cementerio, have broken their non-aggression pact with the Chavista government and declared war on the police on Wednesday.

Entrenched in their bunker in the hills of Cota 905, the shootings between gang members and agents have sown terror and chaos in that sector of the city, where half a million people live, with a balance of at least eight dead and several wounded .

The area has been the scene of a pitched battle with stray bullets that hit pedestrians more than two kilometers away, neighbors on a raised floor and even some drivers, who were trapped in their vehicles without being able to receive medical attention.

More information

• The keys to the new scenario in Venezuela: the US approaches Europe but keeps its sword high

• Brussels and Washington open the door to lift sanctions on Venezuela

After a day of silence, the Interior Minister, Carmen Meléndez, deployed an operation on Thursday to contain the gang that continued yesterday.

“The population is asked to avoid vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

The call is to remain safe, to maintain calm and trust in our State security institutions, as well as to disregard false information and rumors, as they are part of the aggression against citizen peace, ”he reported on social networks.

They have been three days of confrontations, but not the only ones.

So far this year there have been at least 14 deaths from stray bullets in the city.

Ten occurred during the shootings in the neighborhoods controlled by this criminal group dedicated to kidnapping, vehicle theft and extortion, according to Victim Monitor, a journalistic project of the Runrunes portal.

#Caracas one of the places where the antisocials confronted the security forces in Cota905.

pic.twitter.com/WRCfcEJmIU

- Roman Camacho (@RCamachoVzla) July 9, 2021

But this week has been key to showing the power of the most dangerous gang in Caracas, where there are more and more displaced by violence and more armed people on the streets, despite the fact that there are no armories in Venezuela, it is forbidden to access weapons with weapons. shops and stores and the issuance of new permits to carry them has been suspended for more than a decade. The only possibility to buy one is the illegal market. In social networks, recordings circulate about the inexhaustible arsenal that exists in Cota 905, dominated by about 250 men, with alliances in neighboring neighborhoods that add up to 600 criminals, according to the lawyer and criminologist Luis Izquiel, a professor at the Central University of Venezuela.

Less than a month ago, Meléndez already ordered the incursion of 1,400 police officers in the La Vega sector to try to withdraw the Koki.

The operation left 38 detainees, two officials injured and some seizures of weapons and drugs, according to the government.

"It was a great success," said the official.

The dominance of these criminal groups is due to several factors.

“Strengthening the gangs is a process of years.

In addition to social factors such as increasing poverty, which means that young people only have as a reference that the one who can make money and live well is the criminal, impunity, the crisis in prisons and the weakening of the institutionality and the security forces, with policemen who earn barely 10 dollars (9 euros) a month and are discredited by corruption and human rights violations, ”says Izquiel.

In this context, “criminal governance” has emerged, which contrasts with the drastic decrease in homicides in the once most violent city in the region.

“These gangs are daughters of the abandonment of the State.

Now they are the true government, ”says Izquiel.

“Some officials agreed to pacification with the gangs in exchange for the police not entering those sectors.

They never complied.

The police did not return and the gangs gained power, "says Izquiel, for whom what happened this week, still without an outcome, will set a precedent.

Reward for the Cota 905 group

In an unusual measure, the Government of Nicolás Maduro, suffocated by falling revenues and Washington sanctions, offers a reward of up to 1.5 million dollars (1.3 million euros) for information on the three leaders of the band of Cota 905. The Minister of the Interior, Carmen Meléndez, accused the right wing of violence. "There is no doubt about the direct complicity, financing and collaboration, with the planning, supply of arms and communication support by sectors of the Venezuelan right, with international complicity," he wrote on Twitter.

They have been looking for their main leader, Carlos Luis Revete, 45 or 46 years old, at least since 2015. That year in the Cota 905 neighborhood, the first Operation for the Liberation of the People (OLP) was carried out, police and military raids of the Government against crime. With thousands of extrajudicial killings, the OLP are featured in UN reports on human rights violations in Venezuela.