It’s official: criminal gangs are part of Venezuela’s armed establishment with the power to exercise violence and behave outside the law. No one is officially above them because even our country’s military has ended up being their fearful servants.
What happened last Sunday in Petare dramatically confirms that in Venezuela the collectives, deformed into armed gangs that assault and murder under the slogan of Chávez lives, are the future bet of Nicolás Maduro to whom the majority of the FANB whose hierarchy no longer serves he guards against the dangerous fate of being denounced before the International Criminal Court. But criminal gangs don’t care about that so, protected by the regime, they act freely, regardless of the size of the outrages they commit.
A recent event last Sunday reveals this reality, after the inhabitants of Mariches asked the police authorities of the Sucre municipality to intervene in the face of constant harassment by criminal gangs. Several officials went to the sector and caught red-handed 14 thugs between the ages of 18 and 57 (also a minor) who, armed, hooded, dressed in black, were robbing a warehouse.
The detainees were transferred to the Polisucre headquarters to begin the legal procedure; The authority of the Public Ministry was informed. A long list of weapons and vehicles were confiscated from those detained, confirming their impunity and comfortable economic situation. After a few hours, cronies of the detainees besieged the police headquarters, committed excesses, terrorized the residents of the area and workers, including those from the cleaning service, who were forced to unload the garbage in the middle of the street and then burn it. The violent people identified themselves as members of the “Cara al Río security corridor” who threatened the arrests, demanding that their cronies be released under penalty of worse actions. They also accused the leadership of the police agency of being the armed wing of the enemy, understanding that an enemy for them is being an opponent and with it, a possible and dangerous generator of coups d’état.
And the regime obeyed them immediately. The judicial procedure of preventive detention with which a complex and expensive arsenal was confiscated, as well as vehicles of different displacements, was reversed. The spectacle of Armed Forces officers behaving as subordinates of criminals was more than painful. The only thing missing was the request for forgiveness for having dared to arrest members of a gang that commits crimes, harasses the community and deploys numerous weapons obtained illegally. There was not even a presentation hearing. For them the law is a hindrance.
The icing on the cake was placed by the Minister of the Interior and Justice Remigio Ceballos: “the situation in Petare has already been controlled through dialogue.” Dialogue for murderers, but a teacher who protests against his starvation wage goes to prison.
Without hesitation, General Elio Estrada Paredes, vice minister of the integrated major police system, stated in a pleasant meeting with the members of the criminal gang: “we all go to combat, to defend our country, our peace, our revolution and our commander. It is a message from our commander in chief, this is not going to happen again in Petare because we are going to have the best coordination between everyone. If there is any news, call us to resolve the problems. And we are going to get the scrawny person out.” The expressive intervention closed with cheers for Maduro.
Translation of the previous speech: guys, if you are going to rob businesses or you feel like a robbery of a certain complexity, let us know to make sure that nothing hinders your activities for the country. That’s what Maduro tells them to say. Yes, be attentive to future requirements when it is necessary to seize property from opponents, terrorize them or liquidate them. Chavez lives.
The confirmation that the most wanted criminal inside and outside the country, the Niño Guerrero del Tren de Aragua, communicates by telephone with the Minister of the Interior and Justice Remigio Ceballos, as if he were his best friend, already seemed quite scandalous.
The communication fluidity between the military hierarchy and the armed gangs has been ratified. And even worse, the submission of the FANB to illegal armed groups is evident.
And it is official: no regional or local police, nor the CICPC, nor the National Guard can touch those armed bands that call themselves guardians of the revolution.
It is frightening, discouraging, worrying, shameful, reprehensible, dangerous.
