Clashes between police, Caracas gang leave 26 dead, Venezuela says | Reuters

CARACAS, July 10 (Reuters) – Clashes between police and a gang in northwestern Caracas this week have left at least 26 dead, including four officers, and 38 people injured, Venezuelan Interior Minister Carmen Melendez said on Saturday.

The casualty count comes after several days of heavy gunfire left some capital residents fleeing their homes and snarled traffic in several neighborhoods, as authorities in the crime-stricken city push back on what analysts describe as a gang’s effort to expand its territory beyond the Cota 905 barrio. read more

Melendez said 10 officers were injured in the clashes and that 22 “criminals” died. She said some 28 “civilians” – a reference to residents not suspected to be gang members – were injured and that some civilians died, though she did not specify how many and did not provide further details.

Human rights activists said this week that four people were killed by stray bullets during the clashes. Activists and the political opposition have for years accused President Nicolas Maduro’s government of disregarding and covering up civilian casualties in anti-crime raids.

via www.reuters.com

Much as we would like to, we should not intervene in Venezuela or in Cuba either. Why? Because the people doing the intervening would figure out some way to turn the interventions into a gigantic, costly scam, as they did in Iraq. Perhaps there should be some sort of voluntary service to go fight if it comes to civil wars down in those benighted countries, sort of like an Abraham Lincoln Brigade that actually deserves the name.