Maduro says Colombia welcomes Venezuelan criminals with open arms

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “We have freed the (popular neighborhood of) Cota 905 and the whole southern area of Caracas from criminal gangs financed by Colombia, armed by the paramilitaries of (Colombian President) Iván Duque,” Maduro said at a party event broadcast by state-run VTV.

Between July 7 and 9, during almost 72 hours, several criminal gangs attacked police forces in western Caracas and disrupted activity in several areas, among them the Cota 905.

According to the official report released shortly thereafter, 4 police officers were killed and 22 “criminals” were “neutralized,” a word used ambiguously by authorities, which makes it impossible to establish whether they died or were arrested.

Several local media reported Tuesday that some of these group members, whose leaders were not arrested and are wanted by state security forces, have crossed the border and fled to Colombia.

Among the most wanted are Carlos Luis Revete, aka “El Koki,” Garbis Ochoa Ruiz, aka “El Galvis,” and Carlos Calderón Martínez, aka “El Vampi,” all of whom are accused of murder.

In this respect, Maduro recalled that on Tuesday a draft Law of Peace Quadrants (tactical unit) was passed in the first reading, which seeks to protect “all the people of Venezuela.”

For the head of state, this is “an important law that leads us towards a country of peace” that includes “freeing the homeland from criminal gangs.” “Today a path towards the construction of peace quadrants begins, Venezuela has achieved the formula for citizen safety, now we must deepen it, improve it,” he said.