Lessons From Venezuela: Violence, Crime, and Gangs When SHTF

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This article is related to a recent shooting between a gang, and the death squads used by the red ones, on August 1, 2019.

There are some things in life that still have the potential to surprise guys like me. Especially when such things happen in my own hometown when I was born and bred, and that used to be a safe place in my younger years. Isolated violence is not uncommon in small towns in South America, no matter what country you are, but it´s usually related to crime and drugs, and similar stuff. But the new elements are really something to worry about.

The story starts when Hugo decided to arm civilians (illegally) with AKs to defend the supposed revolution going on. With a pocket full of money to buy Caribbean countries loyalty, and whoever crossed in his path, no one cared about it and what effect this would have in our society. He was going to do whatever he wanted, and so he did. Yes, Hugo, arming people in da hoods was a GREAT idea. Thanks for nothing, moron. Afterwards, the few people really decent who had the terrible idea to receive a weapon would be screwed: many of them were victims of criminals looking to take the guns from them. These AKs and handguns would be under control of the “colectivos”, a word used to mask illegal activities like express kidnapping, blackmailing, retail drug business and small scale money laundry, under organizations that would do “community or social/cultural work” for the poor barrios.

Far from the truth.

Yes, there are some organizations that are doing a good job, within their means. But most of them are just a cover for gangs. Their members are common criminals in many instances, heavily brain-washed with communism, and consumers of some type of substance. Real little jewels, aren’t they?

Authorities are allowing gangs to cause a lot of trouble.

Gangs would organize themselves, usually recruiting very young members with some kind of military or police training. Just like it seems to be happening all over the world. Adding insult to the injury, regular police and armed forces were given orders to not mess with them. To let them be. They steal broad daylight, gun in hand, roaming in swarms and police can’t do anything.

These irregular forces is an (internationally illegal) line of defense that the narcos in power NEED because they have shot the protesters, killed people, and have immunity: THAT IS THEIR JOB, TO CONTROL PEOPLE UNDER THE DISGUISE OF CIVILIAN TURMOIL!! Dudes!

It just happened in China with the massive killing with knives!. “Patente de corso” in Spanish. License to kill. If you believe that the guys sitting there are just corrupt and inefficient, think twice. They’re psychos, and very dangerous. They know exactly what they are doing and what they have to do to keep in power: starve the people, and shoot them massively if rebellion starts.

Did you believe that movies like The Hunger Games were exaggerated?

People, we are facing the exact same situation. A corrupted elite wrapped in designer clothes, toting Gucci purses, eating like queens and kings, they and their families protected by hundreds of bodyguards while people starve in every district.

I’m not talking about politics here. I’m making a profile of the gangs, where they come from, why they are so strong and why civilians and regular forces have been unable to combat them.

To keep social control, another faction was created. Won’t name it here, don’t want to get labeled. They transport in black pickups without a license plate, dress in black, faces covered. Their weaponry and gear is first class. I’ve studied some footage and photos, and I know this is true. Their training is merciless.

What kind of decent country allows that?

Venezuela has a long history of gangs.

The gangs usually need to show their power and impunity to the world, to intimidate their rivals and the general public. Social networks have been useful for this. In this link, you will find something that happened in the immediate vicinity of my hometown, in a hacienda. (Unrelated to the most recent shooting that generated this article) Altagracia Massacre

Now, please allow me to inform what happened in the town where I spent a very happy childhood, and a more than regular adolescence: Altagracia. It used to be a peaceful, quiet town. Lots of migrants, especially from Islas Canarias, Spain. Lots of Italians, too. They learned to love that land that embraced them as their own children. Many of them never came back to their origin place, even though they could, preferring to stay. Lots of farms, both cattle and corn, tomatoes, tobacco, and pastures. A mild climate, very warm, but at the same time welcoming. It’s hard to explain. You would have to experience it to understand it, maybe. It has been quite shocking for me to learn about this and wanted to take my time to do good research and write something meaningful.

Let’s start.

Gangs have been a pain since a long time for everyone, when in the 60s and 70s crime started to band together to gain strength. This was probably related to the appearance of the urban guerrilla (Castro-promoted), who kidnapped and commit crimes all over the country to destroy the stability and the democracy of the country. They recruited members with criminal experience to assist them in the resources collection to finance their political activities, and this started a lot of other criminal actions, on a more serious level. In the barrios, with a large amount of Chavez supporters, these gangs saw where the power balance was, joining to the “cause” and gained impunity and power, oppressing the opposition people.

This said, gangs roamed all over the different regions of the country, respecting each other terrains, enjoying the loot of their crimes. One of the most famous was the called “El tren de Aragua”, dismantled by live fire by death squads some time ago. There is another famous gang now, the main character of this story I am to narrate about.

Criminals are getting a lot bolder and more brazen.

In the last few years, the impunity of criminals has been increasing. Roaming around in packs, they are used to do whatever they want. When one of their members is shot dead, they present their “respect” shooting to the air, just like the Taliban. This incredible demonstration of criminal behavior can be seen in this link: Banda “El Malony” exhibe armas en Altagracia de Orituco, Guárico

This is my hometown. Of course, in one of the barrios, we never went because it was dangerous though. But thinking that those thugs could be in the very same bar I am, it’s just freaking scary. It’s just not something easy to accept, that failure of the state has touched us so close and making our lives a mess.

This gang had previously attacked (with grenades and AKs) a police post, back there in 2017, think. In the same town, Altagracia. The massacre of San Valentin’s day was a breakthrough: it was brutal and merciless, but it wasn’t even half of the death toll of this gang. Well, these last ones were armed, that’s true.

The death squad used by the guys in power to kidnap opposition politicians, members of the National Assembly, and similar tasks, became engaged with the gang in the video and eliminated them. Of course, uploading that video showing their faces was too much of an insult for the uniforms and were hunted. That is a fact.

Let the gangs in Venezuela serve as a cautionary tale.

Why did I decide to write about this?

Because, once regular law and order get lost, this is what you must expect.

This is what you must hide from.

This is what you can’t combat against, unless you are better armed, with numeric advantage, and can take them down silently.

This, dear fellows, is the exact situation that must be avoided at all cost.

This is the situation you don’t want nearby.

These are the guys who are going to be roaming free if things go really bad. Maybe without any family to take care of. Without any desire to keep living. That thin layer, that microns-thick coating of civilization will be lost in much less time than we could imagine. Drugs and alcohol addiction, added to an increasing scarcity of these products, will bring afloat the worst of the criminal personalities that will be common in the streets and roads. Maybe some of them could arrive nearby our homestead. This is why concealing and inaccessibility are so paramount. This is why camouflage and silent operations of self-defense are going to be so important, living in the woods. I am used to city living. There are few things that I used to enjoy of my former life, more than having my Saturday morning foamy and smoking latte, in a table outside the cafeteria while reading my newspaper.

But how are you going to sit peacefully with this kind of things going on around?

Good thing is, I have practiced in the woods enough already how to walk without any noise, and after living in this huge, impersonal city, I know I won’t miss city life ever again.

Thank you.

Thanks for your reading, fellows.

Special regard for those who send their support to keep me on track and writing. Blessings for you, and may the Lord provide you abundance and health to enjoy it.

See you in the next article.

What do you think?

Will gangs become a problem in the US if/when SHT? Are you prepared to handle them if they do? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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

J.G. Martinez D

J.G. Martinez D

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

Leave a Reply

  • There are some lessons that can be taken from this.
    But one must realize that this is a National economic collapse scenario.
    Croatia was a Civil war scenario.
    If the US suffers either one it, will cause a Global economic collapse.
    This is the game changer. With US money (stock market. banks, etc), Global Corporate Businesses, our Technology. Military Protection, Etc, the world will fall into utter chaos very shortly.
    For those who might not understand this, look at how the 2008 banking crisis spread from the US to the World and that was when only a small portion of our economy that was affected.

    As this applies to Venezuela, ( and the US) , in a Global crisis there will shortly be no gasoline. no electricity, no processed foods and no medical supplies either being made or being imported. There will thus be no jobs, no currency that is worth anything, except bartering.
    This is far different than the scenario in Venezuela .

    Modern Gangs and Criminal organizations operate to make money. When money is no longer valuable and there are no jobs, no means of producing things, they will change, to a primitive survival mode.
    Mostly they will attack those ” bugging in” or remaining in the cities. Then other gangs in their area.
    Much like what has happened with the factions in Mogadishu, Somalia.
    But even there, that is not a Global economic collapse scenario. So it is only a glimpse of what can happen, not a guide.

    Since the cities will produce nothing of value, and nothing can be imported for elsewhere, Gangs will either have to relocate and lose their turf. Or they can choose to stay and try to exist on what is still within a day or two’s travel ( on foot) of their turf.
    Most will probably choose the latter. It is human nature not to want to relocate into the unknown or to start over. Gang mentality is all about controlling and protecting their “home” turf.
    So that is why you do not want to be in or near a city, when this goes down.

    • Uhm….I think you’re giving the US too much power. As we speak, countries are stacking gold, cutting off the US dollar for trade and trading in their own currencies, they have created an alternative system to the SWIFT system, and stick their noses up at US sanctions. No one will join the US to attack Iran and overall the US is broke, full of violence, and can’t tell the difference between men and women. Sure, the demise of the US will have a global effect but not to the degree you stated. US is NOT the world…! There are demographics and places in the world who will do just fine, especially if they are smart enough to get rid of most of their US dollars for trade. It’s the US empire’s turn to fall like Rome, UK, Greece, Spain…etc. In fact, the world will be glad to be rid of the US hegemony. What you need to do is prepare…!

  • Gangs are already taking over Portland. And when your state government tells police to STAND DOWN…things go south quickly. Eyes on Portland this weekend people.

  • Excellent article. I live in Florida and our church feeds many of the Refugees from Venezuela who tell similar tales.

    Ms. Luther, you have one of, if not the best prepper site that there is. THANK YOU!

    • Thanks, Wind. I hope to be able to visit one day some of the native American communities in the North. I am curious about certain cultural similarities and verbal records I have found with South American tribes.

      Stay tuned for more updated information, and thanks for appreciating our effort to keep this website running for all of you.

      Best regards,

      Jose.

  • It’s already happening in the USA. I lived in the Bronx where entire neighborhoods were totally controlled by gang drug dealers. Noise all hours of the night and day, no quality of life. Very unsafe. Most of the people were in one way or another making money from the drug dealers. When I went to work in the morning, they came out to sit on the sidewalk where they basically lived, they were watching out and holding drugs. When I came home late at night, they were still there. The money in the streets is unbelievable. Add to that the house parties and garage parties, pay to enter, underage getting drunk and spilling out to the street, hundreds of out of control people. The noise was torturous. The age of the children running the streets all night long started at about age nine. They were armed and looking for trouble, which they usually created.
    Any place in NYC where there’s a NYCHA housing project there are dangerous gangs. The shooting that occur nightly are in the housing projects. Convicted felons are supposed to lose their NYCHA apartments, but they don’t. They come out of prison and take up drug dealing ,pimping, gun running, loan sharking and gang banging again. What is NYCHA? It is municipal housing where people can pay only 30% of their monthly income. If someone is on welfare or Social Security, their rent will be under $300 per month and that includes utilities. It was for working people so they could establish stability. Until the riots of the 1960’s, families lived in NYCHA apartments until they moved to their own homes or better apartments. The way it is now, generations of criminals control NYCHA and they have no reason to leave.

  • Interesting information here, but bottom line is do not ever give up your gun…ever…. Politicians do not give or take away your rights… you let them… Americas Founding Fathers decided to do something about their situation… I suggest people study the American Revolution and see in are they worthy or just a serf…

    • Dear tuesdayissoylentgreenday

      First, what a nickname you have there! Love it.

      Second, one of the main involved and who worked actively in taking the guns out of our civilians hands is Tarek El Aissami (he “ordered” to the authorities to change the laws to give penalty of 25 years by illegal carrying??), and he is now in your USA 10 most wanted list for sponsoring terrorism (he has proven links with arab extremists) and drug dealing by the ton.
      Go figure.

  • I spent 10 months living off of the land with nothing more than a pocket knife, 10 paper matches in a matchbook, and one change of clothing. Unprepared but determined to live.
    Long story short i made it but I’d grown up Forraging foods and medicine with my mother. Our church youth program had taught a lot of survival things. I’d passed directions finding, campcrafts, tracking and making a trackless trail, blazing a trail, camp cooking, knots, and more. I hadn’t studied wild foods but I’d read Mom’s books and that helped a lot. I knew the area from several years of roaming there freely for several years. In the summer often sunup to nearly sundown. I knew several miles along a tiny stream that started in the hills above where I roamed. I learned the animals there by observation. I ate apples from a gnarled old tree near the remains of a root cellar. The home was long gone.
    An old vegetable can became my prized possession.
    I learned a lot out there. I’d see a need and find a way to meet it. Glad my dad taught me to think about things. A box of aluminum foil wasn’t going to magically appear. I had to find ways to cook on rocks and eventually in a can.
    I enjoy reading the articles here.

  • Dear Les,

    I read reports coming from participants in the protest demonstrations saying that suddenly appeared gangs of thugs armed with knives, and the police backed off, leaving them to do as they pleased. I should have provided a link for this, but some seconds of duckduck searching should reveal about this. It´s the exact same technique used in Venezuela, where the gang in power gives orders to the armed forces to NOT do their job of protecting the people at the streets.

  • All the phenomena you observe in Venezuela as the result of socialism are already present in the Western world, but they are glossed over by the MSM.

    Death squads = CIA renditions
    Gangs in Chicago and Los Angeles and elsewhere
    Out of control knife crime in London
    Random violence, cops kill more than 1000 Americans per year instead of arresting them or defusing the situation (with the mentally ill, dogs, toddlers, etc)
    Violent repression of political protest with impunity. Study the Yellow Vests in France, but dig beyond MSM glosses of what’s actually going on.

    • Dear Webej,

      Yes, I agree. Not going to get any deeper into politics here, but perhaps we can find a common point in that there is a lot of things going on in the world and leftist govs are quite more permissive.

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