Violent criminal gangs are running more than half of Venezuela. Some people know how messed up Venezuela is these days. Having lived there for decades, I have a better understanding of why. Until there is a return to democracy, however, I can’t fully disclose the reasons.
Recently a shooting incident left several officers and civilians injured and one officer dead. Criminals destroyed an armored car (AK fire, cracked windshield, torn tires, bullet holes) and other vehicles.
Venezuela is about to be completely overrun by criminal gangs
Gangs in Venezuela become more powerful with each day.
Why?
An article published on World Politics Review, “Armed Gangs and Warlords Are Taking Over Venezuela” offers this:
Much of the problem stems from Venezuela’s breathtaking economic collapse, which has left criminal activity as the principal livelihood for much of the country, including many public officials, who resort to bribery and extortion to make ends meet. Venezuela’s gross domestic product, which stood at $352 billion a decade ago, has plummeted to $43.75 billion, a barely believable loss of more than 87 percent in a decade.
The once-wealthy nation with vast oil reserves has seen state oil revenues vanish and profitable economic activity languish. Smuggling is now a leading industry, and Venezuela’s borders are beehives of illicit trafficking, while large swaths of the country survive on other forms of criminality.
Violent gangs ambush the only remaining officers left
The official version is this: a special operation executed in a barrio resulted in the ambush and merciless shooting of Scientific Police Corps officers. Organized criminals belonging to the Carlos Revette gang are responsible for the ambush and subsequent injuries of officers and civilians.
The Scientific Police Corps is the only organization to survive after the failed coup. These officers under attack were not a special task force. They’re like the CSI on the USA. Intel and forensic work, not assault teams. As you can read here, any officer belonging to these organizations carrying any weaponry is in serious trouble.
Toby has written on this website that there is no such thing as WROL (Without Rule of Law) – instead, it becomes DROL (Different Rule of Law.) That is what we’re seeing here. And Selco has written that there will be new rules and you won’t like the way they are enforced. This has also proven to be accurate.
Officers and civilians shot at from all directions
As the criminal gangs wreaked havoc on Caracas, civilians were trapped in the crossfire. Many of them abandoned their vehicles to look for cover under the rain gutters and on the road shoulders. The video below shows a trapped civilian who looked for cover behind the highway divider. Also, in the video, police officers are trapped and screaming. They mention fire from all directions, just like the Normandy invasion.
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In Caracas and other Venezuelan cities, favelas and barrios of different wealth levels surround the highways. To the right and left of the roadways in the video are thugs shooting from cover in the surrounding barrios.
The thugs shot civilian vehicles nearby just because they could—full auto AK103 against 9mm and maybe an old battered Steyr AUG. In the end, the thugs went to the patrol car to collect the loot.
How did violent criminal gangs get ammunition for 2-hour long combat?
The nationalized AK ammo factory is under official control. However, it seems some parts of the capital city are subject to criminal control. Whether the LEOs can or cannot combat them, it’s unknown.
The situation is complicated and has a political background. Back in the Hugo era, militias in the poorest barrios of Caracas were provided with weaponry “for the defense of the homeland.” Of course, many of these AKs were “lost.”
Venezuela banned the civilian population from private gun ownership in 2012. That is only one part of the problem. However, the same article informs an unknown number (within 9 to 15 million) of illegal guns in the barrios.
The problem with gun trafficking is not exclusive to military weapons going to the wrong hands. Private non-USA “entrepreneurs” boldly push their luck in the USA, finding creative ways to ship guns to their customers.
What can we do?
I believe Venezuela is on the path to a collapse and possible Somalization of my beloved homeland. In this article dated 2019, someone else has the very same impression. So much illegal weaponry in our streets is highly alarming. Someone must do something before it’s too late.
Thanks for your reading and for your assistance in these rough times. Stay tuned. Much more to come in these next few weeks. God bless us all.
Your Amigo, Jose
About Jose
Jose is an upper middle class professional. He is a former worker of the oil state company with a Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. He has a small 4 members family, plus two cats and a dog. An old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Jose is a prepper and shares his eyewitness accounts and survival stories from the collapse of his beloved Venezuela. Thanks to your help Jose has gotten his family out of Venezuela. They are currently setting up a new life in another country. Follow Jose on YouTube and gain access to his exclusive content on Patreon. Donations: paypal.me/JoseM151
Venezuela is a lost cause but the same thing is going to happen in the U.S. as mestizo gangs gain territory across much of the country and run into the existing black gangs, the sounds of automatic gunfire as you drive in urban areas will become commonplace.
Here in Floydsville USA we are seeing the first fruits of government self destruction. Local drug lords have gone into war footing, with shootouts between gangs ignored by police for fear of another Floyd incident, and the city council’s explicit directive that the police should not be policing our city. Two days in the past week I have had gang shootouts in front of my house, and 911 says they aren’t going to do squat, it’s in our hands. I believe city council and the local gov’t in general taking are orders from above and actively encouraging yet more violence as part of the global great reset package coming our way. Ilan Omar wants to be warrior queen of little Somalia here, and things are heading toward widespread violence.
Exactly the kind of attitude socialist party is showing. They don´t give a dang.
Yeah the whole country is watching Minneapolis turn into a $hitty place. Its awful. I didnt loose anything there and I stay away.
Saw an article @ ZH about how street gangs in London are also taking over there by using “printed” Glock want-ta-be’s.
I know that this must be hard for you Mr. Martinez , our major cities here in the U.S. are tipping towards the same street violence also.
God Bless
Yes it is.
The country is headed towards a worsening situation, and I don´t have another place to go. The pandemics changed the entire landscape for migrants.
Nope, London is far safer than the average US city, the UK far far safer than the United States. Please stop spreading misinformation.
“Someone must do something before it’s too late.” How true of the USA and other countries too. Where are those people? Are they being silenced and shot down before they can gain a foothold? We are being told to participate wherever we can – at the local level – to support good people and policies. The biggest thing we need to do is get involved in the voting apparatus in our areas to ensure that the next election is a fair one. May God be with us.
Sad to hear that Jose, I’m following the situation in Venezuela too and it looks like a road to Mad Max because things are so bad and at one point so complicated that it’s very very hard to fix.
That’s another level down SHTF. Police fights crime until they turn into just another faction themselves. Everything starts organizing and building around crime, because that’s the only “economy” left, all the rest has gone down the drain.
One day this will be fixed but it will take decades unfortunately. Venezuela is a beautiful and rich country. Hope you stay well.
Thanks, Fabian.
We will be all right. These type of crime is in the big cities. Small rural towns where we are, not so much. A lot of migrants are coming back from the countries they had flee…I hope this be the starting of changes for good.
Glad to know you’re in safer settings, Jose.
Yep it’s the same here, big cities are usually worse. I hope change is on the way, as I said the Venezuela I knew was a great country and the people deserve much better.
I guess at one point things get so bad that everyone (or the majority of the people) start getting to their senses and to change and improve the situation indeed. Again, I hope that comes soon!
No Brasil tambem temos este problema e agora com a Covid e o desemprego os roubos e invasões as casas já está aumentando porque a fome se espalhou por causa do lockdowm. Talvez em breve haverá cada vez mais confrontos se algo não for feito rapidamente. Muito trista tudo isso.
@Rosana
Sim, já vemos alguns conflitos e aumento da criminalidade em alguns estados por aqui. Infelizmente não tem mto o que fazer pq não tem recursos pra todo mundo, e a pandemia e as medidas pra conter a COVID-19 estão quebrando a economia e a produção, igual está acontecendo no mundo todo. E já tínhamos graves problemas econômicos no Brasil e no mundo antes mesmo da pandemia… será um período difícil e complicado sim, infelizmente.
Translate:
Yes, we already see some conflicts and increased crime in some states around here. Unfortunately there is not much to do because it does not have resources for everyone, and the pandemic and the measures to contain COVID-19 are breaking the economy and production, the same is happening all over the world. And we already had serious economic problems in Brazil and in the world even before the pandemic … it will be a difficult and complicated period, unfortunately.
In Brazil we also have this problem and now with Covid and unemployment, thefts and invasions of homes are already increasing because hunger has spread because of the lockdowm. Perhaps soon there will be more and more clashes if something is not done quickly. All this is very sad.
#1. This is what happens once guns are out of the hands of the good, law abiding citizens.
Only the criminals have guns and no one can easily stop them.
This can only happen here (Nationally) if we allow the Government to take our guns.
That said: Blue cities will have this occur Post SHTF. Some red cities will have it if enough of the population bugs out.
In some places it will be Militias, not necessarily criminal gangs, will be controlling everything.
It will probably not mean much difference between them and how they act, only slight differences.
2#. This is part of a world wide epidemic of division and violence.
Not a ” local” or a national one.
Understand that this is occurring by an overall plan. So it will be here soon.
Thinking it can’t happen here or never would ( because they will at least try it here), is just denial.
So Prep for it.
If you don’t see the Bigger picture, you will fall into a trap, You will underestimate the scope and power behind this. This is not the end goal, just a means to get to it.
Destroy the Old order( way of life, governments) to get to the New order( a new way of living and different social order, the real NWO).
And the Real NWO is not what everyone thinks, it is less technology and far worse conditions for the average person.
They dont need to take our guns away. They already took the bullets. Now we have expensive clubs.
It’s inevitable in SHTF. It’ll go one if two ways. You’ll either gain ground and get back ROL or you’ll become a gang or at least a group yourselves to defend.
There are a lot of moving pieces to maintaining ROL. The easier path is pure violence.
Ammo supply is controlled by the official socialists. That´s why I insist so much in big bore air tooling. Under these circumstances those should work. But can´t say much here…
“get back ROL or you’ll become a gang”
gangs have laws. big gang have entire social systems. what is the difference between a gang and ROL?
The economy of Venezuela was always based on the extraction of its vast oil reserves. The decline of the economy is the direct result of the inability of the oil industry in Venezuela to extract and to refine the remaining heavy oil reserves after the easy to pump crude oil was depleted. It is not work which supports modern economies. More than work, modern economies rely on the consumption of essential resources like energy (oil and gas) and metals and other minerals. If the production of these declines for whatever reason, the economy collapses. Worldwide, we deplete all mineral resources at an alarming rate. Modern economy is based on the extraction of resources and the production of goods most of which turn into garbage within 10 – 20 years. The production of food turns into waste even faster. For humanity to survive, we need to invent radically new economies which do not produce as much garbage as we do. One huge problem is to limit the growth of the human population on earth.
Socialism has always ended in economic disasters. The Soviet Union did not collapse because it lost a war against the US. The Soviet Union ended because the economy was not able to produce enough food for the country. Today, Russia is one of the most capitalistic countries in the world. Everybody should study the economic transformation in Russia during the past 30 years.
a worse problem than the gangs might be your fellow preppers. when rule of law goes away and there is no longer any threat of arrest or prosecution, there are many who will see it as an opportunity to remake the world in their image. they will then gear up and take action against The Evil all around them – including you if you don’t fit in their world.
Bernizualia is always about to collapse.