Street battles last year in the Complexo do Alemão, a patchwork of slums, left more than 30 people dead before security forces won control of the area.
The news filtered through the neighborhoods where the five men had been living, a patchwork of slums with buildings constructed of corrugated iron sheets and covered in blue tarpaulins, squeezed between neighborhoods with glass office towers and luxury apartment buildings.
One group of protesters from Complexo do Alemão — a patchwork of slums in Rio once seen as an epicenter of crime and drug trafficking — belonged to an organization called Occupy Alemão, created to demonstrate against police abuses.
"Chávez is surrounded by corrupt idiots, but he keeps his focus on helping the poor," said Omaira de Catacoli, 66, a cook who lives in Catia, a patchwork of slums in western Caracas.
The city has sought to revitalize neglected areas with projects like a new cable car system in Complexo do Alemão, a patchwork of slums, while a real estate boom has attracted the likes of Donald J. Trump, who plans to build five skyscrapers.
A short walk from Mr. Mamani's home in a patchwork of slum housing, Susana Valenzuela, 52, the companion of one miner, Yonny Barrios, 50, had no problem speaking out.
In Jai Bhawani Nagar, a patchwork of slum dwellings covered in blue tarpaulins that sits behind the abandoned mill where the rape took place, residents said the sketch was strikingly similar to a garbage sorter who lived in a one-room structure with his siblings and grandmother.
"The opposition doesn't care for the poor," said Neiva Montezuma, 50, a housewife in Petare, a sprawling patchwork of slums on Caracas's western flank, who said she voted for the president's slate of candidates.
Still, a stroll one afternoon last month through a sprawling patchwork of slums, Nordeste de Amaralina, where, Mr. Almeida said, officials had increased the police presence, the tenuous nature of crime-fighting policies was apparent.
"I am tired of Chávez treating the entire country as if it were his military barracks," said Heriberto González, 65, a carpenter, after he voted in Petare, a sprawling patchwork of slums here.
Mr. Chávez's announcement came at a crucial time for his government, with challengers winning ground last week in areas like Petare, a sprawling patchwork of slums here in Caracas.
