A fugitive cop who carried out a grenade attack in a stolen helicopter in protest at Venezuela’s government has posted a defiant video claiming he was surrounded.
Oscar Perez appeared with a bloody face in a series of Instagram clips, claiming that he was being shot at in a poor neighborhood outside the capital Caracas.
Perez, a 36-year-old former police pilot, is wanted for using a stolen helicopter to lob grenades and shoot at government buildings in June as well as for breaking into a National Guard unit in December to steal weapons.
Police appeared to finally track him down in the poor hillside neighborhood of El Junquito and in a dozen dramatic videos posted on Instagram, Perez said authorities were firing at him with grenade launchers and that snipers were outside.
Fugitive cop Oscar Perez (pictured) who carried out a grenade attack in a stolen helicopter in protest at Venezuela’s government has posted a defiant video claiming he was surrounded
Oscar Perez appeared with a bloody face in a series of Instagram clips, claiming that he was being shot at in a poor neighborhood outside the capital Caracas
‘We’re wounded… they’re killing us!’ said Perez, seemingly wearing a bulletproof vest, as he crouched down in what appeared to be a small house and gunshots were heard in the background. His face becomes increasingly covered with blood with each video.
‘Venezuela, don’t lose hope… Now only you have power so that we can all be free,’ he said in an earlier video, staring into the camera and telling his children he loves them and hopes to see them again.
President Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government has described him as a ‘fanatic, extremist terrorist’ and a manhunt has been under way for months.
Some critics of Maduro have questioned whether his attacks were staged in cahoots with the government to justify a further crackdown on the opposition.
Police appeared to finally track him down in the poor hillside neighborhood of El Junquito and in a dozen dramatic videos posted on Instagram, Perez said authorities were firing at him with grenade launchers and that snipers were outside
Pictures appeared to show his hide-out as he spoke to the camera. Perez claimed that the building was surrounded
Oscar Perez rose to fame in June after allegedly hijacking a police helicopter, flying over Caracas’ centre and firing shots at and lobbing grenades on the Interior Ministry and the Supreme Cour
The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, some members of Maduro’s government scoffed at Perez on Monday morning.
‘What a coward now that he’s caught like a rat!’ tweeted Prisons Minister Iris Varela.
‘Where is the courage he had to attack military units, kill and injure officials and steal weapons?’
An action film star who portrays himself as a James Bond or Rambo-like figure on social media, Perez has added surreal twists to Venezuela’s long-running political drama.
President Nicolas Maduro described Perez’s actions in June as a ‘coup’ and a ‘terrorist’ attack and launched a manhunt for him and his co-conspirators
A nationwide manhunt was launched for Oscar Perez after he targeted a government building in Caracas in protest at dictator Nicolas Maduro’s government. He is pictured during an event of the Body of Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation in Caracas in 2015
In many of his posts, Perez shows off his skills on the firing range – including this footage where he hits a target behind him using a makeup compact mirror
Perez does have an acting past – having produced and starred in a 2015 film called Suspended Death in which he plays a cop rescuing a wealthy hostage from a vicious gang
He rose to fame in June after allegedly hijacking a police helicopter, flying over Caracas’ centre and firing shots at and lobbing grenades on the Interior Ministry and the Supreme Court.
Perez claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to fight what he said was a tyrannical government.
He went into hiding afterward, only to pop up two weeks later at an opposition vigil for anti-government protesters killed during demonstrations that rocked the country last year.
Then in December, a video posted on Perez’s YouTube account shows armed, masked men taking control of military barracks under cover of night.
They smash photos of Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, handcuff around a dozen soldiers and berate them for supporting ‘dictatorship’ in Venezuela. Perez says his team stole around 26 AK-103’s and over 3,000 munitions for the rifles, as well as pistols.