“Leave the area! Get the kids out!” screamed gang members walking through western Caracas’ El Cementerio barrio with megaphones the morning of Thursday, July 8. The warning told residents in Venezuela’s capital shooting would not soon stop.
By then barrio residents had already been sheltering in place for more than half a day, whole families prone on the floor to avoid unrelenting gunfire. But for the next 48 hours, El Cementerio and five nearby neighborhoods were paralyzed by an unprecedented display of firepower by gangs, known by neighbors as “the boys.”
The pitched gun battles between police and a collection of gangs at least 300-strong based in a cluster of barrios in western Caracas are another sign President Nicolas Maduro is losing control over parts of Venezuela, which is suffering from a deep economic crisis and a protracted breakdown of the rule of law.
A similar process is taking place in border states, where Colombian rebels meting out justice in rural areas spent weeks battling Venezuelan troops in standoffs that killed a dozen of soldiers and forced thousands of residents to flee. In Venezuela’s interior local gangs also control territory and set laws.
“It is becoming more evident that Maduro is losing control in and out of Caracas,” said Alexander Campos, a researcher at the Central University of Venezuela who studies violence and politics. “The capacity and ambition of criminal groups from gangs to guerrillas is growing.”
Read more at NEWSMAX.
{Matzav.com}
Could be any Democrat-run city in the USA.
The USA should help with the situation, by sending an experienced community organizer to Venezuela, to calm things down, plus a renowned bar tender, who could explain how wonderful socialism is, between pouring drinks.