Officials in Venezuela have buried a rebel policeman killed nearly a week ago in a shootout with government security forces.

Family members said only two of Oscar Perez's relatives were permitted to observe the tightly controlled burial on Sunday. Venezuela's national guard surrounded the cemetery in Caracas.

Six other rebels also died in the clash, ending a six-month manhunt for Perez. The former policeman had led a helicopter attack and called for an uprising against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Perez's widow Danahis Vivas says on Twitter that officials deprived her family of performing the ceremony. Relatives had demanded the body.

Perez and five of the others died from gunshots to the head.

Officials call Perez's group a terrorist cell and have not commented on the burial.