The Shattered Mafia Behind Criminal Chaos in Zulia, Venezuela

2 AUG 2023
BY VENEZUELA INVESTIGATIVE UNIT

Over Carnival weekend, as families crowded into Maracaibo’s small, air-conditioned shops, gunmen got off their motorbikes, entered a butcher’s shop, and without uttering a word, indiscriminately fired into the holiday crowd, wounding three people.

Less than two hours later, the violent scene played out again, this time in a small supermarket. The shooters left five bystanders wounded.

The two near-simultaneous attacks, just seven kilometers apart, were both motivated by extortion but had nothing to do with each other.

Maracaibo is the formerly bustling metropolitan capital of Zulia, Venezuela’s most populous state. Once flush with oil money, the city still holds importance as the gate between the northwestern border state of Zulia and the rest of Venezuela. But the Carnival weekend celebrations had been a rare show of liveliness in the capital’s streets, which today have a general feel of abandonment.

For weeks, coverage of the attacks dominated the news there, following a hunt for the perpetrators as Zulia’s political leaders issued calls to action and announced a flurry of security strategies and commissions.

This was a rare moment of outrage in a state where violence has become commonplace. But it was not always this way.

More:
https://insightcrime.org/news/shattered-mob-clan-criminal-chaos-zulia-venezuela/