Venezuela’s government says rogue pilot Oscar Perez was among seven “terrorists” killed in an operation to arrest him Monday.
Interior minister Nestor Reverol said Tuesday seven members of a “terrorist cell” were killed in the police operation to arrest Perez, who dropped several grenades on the Supreme Court building and fired shots at Interior Ministry offices from a stolen police helicopter in June.
The interior ministry had said that Perez, 36, was the leader of the cell with the mission to destabilize the Venezuelan government.
Videos posted online in the hours-long siege showed Perez with a bloody face, saying that he had offered to surrender, but he felt authorities were intent on killing him.
Two police officers were also killed and six people detained during the operation.
Perez, an ex-police officer who previously starred in an action film, had been a fugitive since the June attacks, calling for an uprising against what he called president Nicolas Maduro’s “tyrannical” government.