Video from Venezuela passed off as Kuki militants shooting at Meitei village in Manipur

By: Chandan Borgohain
October 3 2023

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Screenshots of X posts purporting to show visuals of Kuki militants firing at Meitei villagers in Manipur. (Source: X/Screenshot)

Over 180 lives have been lost, and thousands have been displaced in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur in the aftermath of the ethnic violence between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities that erupted in May this year. A fresh spate of violence and unrest gripped the state again after visuals of two murdered Meitei students, who went missing on July 6, emerged recently. 

What is the claim?

A video, purportedly from the strife-torn state, is circulating on social media with the claim that it shows Kuki militants shooting at a Meitei village in Manipur. The video features a group of men firing bullets from a hilltop with sophisticated guns. Sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter), in a now-deleted post, one social media user wrote, "Witness the heart-wrenching video of #KukiMilitants ruthlessly attacking a peaceful Meitei village in broad daylight. Their audacity is beyond belief, & we implore the government of #Manipur to act swiftly to end this brutality. Lives are at stake! #Bihar @AmitShah.” An archived link of the X post can be viewed here.

Screenshot of an X post sharing the viral video. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this is an old video that reportedly shows members of a gang in Venezuela. 

What did we find?

We fragmented the viral video using the InVid tool and performed a reverse image search on the keyframes. This led us to a report published by the Venezuelan news organization El Nacional on July 8, 2021. According to the report titled "They shoot towards the highway: the Conejo gang causes troubles in Tejerías (translated from Spanish)," which also uses a screenshot of the video, the visuals are of an incident from July 2021. The report said that the visuals show members of a gang shooting at the headquarters of the 'Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas' (CICPC) in the Venezuelan town of Tejerias. CICPC is Venezuela's largest national police agency, engaged in criminal investigations and forensic services. 

Comparison of the viral video with the photo carried by El Nacional. (Source: X/El Nacional/Screenshots)

La Verdad Vargas, a news website based in the Venezuelan town of La Guaira, shared the same viral video on X on July 9, 2021. When translated from Spanish, the accompanying caption read, "#Tejerías • Members of the El Conejo gang shoot from the mountain towards the Cicpc headquarters in Tejerías."

Comparing screenshots of the viral video and the one shared by La Verdad Vargas. (Source: X/Screenshots)

A screenshot from the viral video was also carried in a report published by the Venezuelan news website La Patilla. The report, originally written in Spanish, was headlined "It's the criminals": Machine guns and tricolor bags full of bullets in Cota 905 (video)." It said the video was from Cota 905 in Venezuela and showed the El Koki gang. The report added that journalist Ibrahim Lopez Pinero had shared the clip on social media. Cota 905 is a shantytown located on the hills of western Caracas in Venezuela.

Comparison of the viral video with the photo shared by La Patilla. (Source: X/La Patilla/Screenshots)

While all reports indicate that the video is from Venezuela, Logically Facts could not independently verify which gang the video shows, and which part of the South American country it originates from. However, we noted that the language spoken in the viral video is Spanish, a language not spoken by many in Manipur.

According to reports, intense gunfights between police and armed criminal groups shook the northwestern part of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in early July 2021. Reuters reported that at least 26 people, including four police officers, were killed and 38 others were injured in the clashes. 

The verdict

The viral video has been available online since July 2021 and is not from Manipur. Credible reports confirm the clip shows an armed criminal outfit in Venezuela. Therefore, we have marked this claim false.