Gunfire erupted in the center of Caracas when about 40 military police officers briefly overran the station and tried to force out a commander who a day earlier had arrested an army lieutenant, Caracas Metropolitan Police chief Lazaro Forero told Reuters by telephone.
"The metropolitan police faced off with them and rescued the commander," he said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries although four military officers were arrested, officials said. Local television showed images of an armored police van pockmarked with bullet holes.
It was not clear if the police had returned fire at the soldiers.
Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, has been rocked by political conflict for more than a year between Chavez and opponents who accuse him of amassing dictatorial power.
Friday's clash came seven months after President Hugo Chavez ordered the military to temporarily take over the metropolitan police run by anti-Chavez mayor Alfredo Pena.
Chavez, a former paratrooper who survived a coup in April last year, accuses his foes of using the police as a hostile paramilitary force.
Populist Chavez recently threatened to take over control of the 9,000-strong autonomous metropolitan force for the second time after they clashed with his radical supporters during a violent street protest.
Several rival police forces in the capital are run by municipal mayors -- both supporters and opponents of the president -- often leading to confusing law enforcement turf squabbles.
Chavez ordered the Metropolitan Police force to submit to military control last November. The Supreme Court overturned the takeover five weeks later but the Caracas force is still "policed" by army detachments in some of their major stations. [End]
Former PDVSA workers hailed the court ruling, but few seem to think they will ever work for the oil company again. Some say they don't want to.
"I wouldn't go back to work for this government, even if they called to offer me a job," De Freitas says.
Many executives from the company's upper echelons are now living off their savings while dedicating themselves to the opposition's push for a referendum on Chavez's rule, an effort that, they hope, will push him from office by the end of the year.
"Right now I'm unemployed, but I'm conspiring full time," jokes former PDVSA production manager Ignacio Layrisse, who collaborates with a group of former oil workers.
Many of PDVSA's fired mid-level managers and engineers now work odd jobs.
Jose Enrique Salazar, a former materials engineer, sells wooden picture frames in Caracas' street markets. Santiago Zerpa, an accountant employed by the oil company for 22 years, earns money by waiting in long vehicle registration lines for people who don't want do it themselves.
"I feel good about what I'm doing," says Zerpa, who also is involved with the opposition. "Fighting against this government keeps me going."
Many former PDVSA employees say they share Zerpa's spirit of resistance. Still, losing the prestige and security the oil company provided has taken its toll, many quietly acknowledge. ***