Attempt of assassination of Venezuela's Maduro failed

At least one explosion rocked a military event where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was giving a speech on Saturday and the government said it was a failed assassination attempt involving drones carrying explosives
Sunday, 05 August 2018 17:51

On Saturday night, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro survived what government officials in Caracas are calling an assassination attempt. During a military event in the country's capital, a nearby explosion interrupted Maduro's televised speech, leaving seven people injured. The head of state was unscathed following the alleged attack, which spawned a few speculations about what happened in Caracas during his address.

Maduro said everything points to a right-wing plot that initial investigation suggested was linked to Colombia and the U.S. state of Florida, where many Venezuelan exiles live. Several perpetrators were caught, he said, without elaborating.

"That drone was coming for me but there was a shield of love. I am sure I will live for many more years," he said, adding that the initial investigation points to links to Colombia and its President Juan Manuel Santos in particular, as well as Florida-based financiers.

Bogota dismissed the allegations as "absurd and groundless."

John Bolton, the national security adviser to the White House, denied the United States was behind a drone blast.

"It could be a lot of things from a pretext set up by the Maduro regime itself to something else," Bolton said, adding that there were no Americans injured in the blast.

"If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, we will take a serious look at it," he said.

Photographs on social media appeared to show bodyguards shielding Maduro with black bulletproof panels. A photograph also showed an injured military official clutching his bloody head and being held up by colleagues.

After reports about the incident hit the newswire, a Venezuelan group called the Flannel Soldiers claimed responsibility for the attempted attack in a Twitter post. According to their statement, two drones loaded with C-4 explosive were meant to detonate near the presidential tribune, but Maduro's snipers shot them down before they hit the president.