Venezuela’s government announced Tuesday that rogue pilot Oscar Perez was among seven “terrorists” killed during a bloody police assault to arrest him the day before.
Police swooped on Perez and his armed group holed up outside Caracas on Monday, setting off a fierce gunbattle in which two police officers were also killed.
It was initially unclear whether the 36-year-old – Venezuela’s most wanted man – had been killed or captured.
His family had pleaded for news of his condition from the government, until Tuesday’s announcement drew a line under the latest bloody chapter of efforts to unseat President Nicolas Maduro.
Perez had been wanted since he used a stolen helicopter to bomb Venezuela’s Supreme Court at the height of anti-government protests last June.
Maduro had accused him of attempting a “coup” and being in the pay of the CIA.
Interior Minister Nestor Reverol told reporters in Caracas that four men and two women arrested in the so-called Operation Gideon “are being prosecuted at this time.”
Eight police officers had been wounded in the battle, he said.
“The acts committed by this criminal gang qualify as terrorism, constituting clear and flagrant attacks against democratic institutions,” said Reverol, who was flanked by senior military and police officers.
A bloodied Perez posted videos on Instagram during Monday’s clashes, saying he and his men were pinned down by snipers and wanted to surrender.
The government accused his men of opening fire on police during negotiations to surrender.
It said that those who resisted had been killed.
Ex-attorney general Luisa Ortega Diaz, who broke with Maduro and fled to Colombia after being fired last year, described the incident as an “extrajudicial execution.”
In June, Perez and unidentified accomplices flew over Caracas in a police helicopter and dropped four grenades on the Supreme Court before opening fire on the interior ministry. There were no casualties.
Perez had been on the run since.
The 36-year-old former elite police officer and actor has regularly taunted the government during his time in hiding, saying he was fighting against Maduro’s “tyranny” and the “narco-dictatorship.”
Two weeks after the attack on the Supreme Court, Perez turned up at a Caracas ceremony to commemorate those who had died in the wave of anti-government protests.
In all, 125 people were killed between April and July as authorities used force to put down protests to remove Maduro.
Eventually, the protests fizzled out and the socialist president prevailed, despite a staggering crisis caused by falling oil prices, spiraling inflation and corruption.
Perez urged Venezuelans “not to lose heart. Fight, take to the streets, it is time for us to be free.”
