Seven national guards have been injured in Venezuela after an apparent assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday using an explosive-laden drone as he addressed the nation on live TV.
Footage broadcast by state television shows Maduro abruptly cutting short his speech before looking to the sky. Thousands of soldiers who were assembled in massed ranks then scatter as people scream amid the sounds of explosions.
His wife, Cilia Flores, was standing next to him at the time, and can be seen ducking away as officials erect a shield wall around the president. Images showed a bloodied soldier being carried away and smoking holes in nearby buildings.
Maduro accused neighboring Colombia and unidentified ‘financiers’ in the United States of being responsible for the attack, while some of his officials blamed Venezuela’s opposition.
Maduro was mid-speech at an event to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard when a ‘flying device’ exploded right in front of him at 5.40pm, according to an televised account he gave after the event.
‘To the conscious Venezuela, we are going to bet for the good of our country, the hour of the economic recovery has come and we need. Mr Maduro was saying before he suddenly stopped talking.
Within seconds, there was a second explosion and pandemonium ensued, with guards carrying bullet-proof shields rushing the premier and his wife off the stage.
Uniformed members of the country’s National Guard lined up in the parade then suddenly broke ranks and began scattering in all directions to the sounds of microphones dropping at the state TV channel before the camera cut away.
A photograph later showed an injured military official clutching his bloody head as he was carried away by colleagues.
It was an attack to kill me, they tried to assassinate me today, Maduro said in the later broadcast, as he said a number of suspects had already been arrested.
Maduro said the ‘far right’ working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible. Some of the ‘material authors’ of the apparent attack have been detained.
Colombia denied any involvement, while a senior Colombian official speaking on condition of anonymity said Maduro’s accusation was baseless.
Venezuela’s government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations.
Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis.
In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the lam.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Maduro, but rather the military’s entire high command on stage with the president.
Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Saab, adding that he would give more details Monday.
We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela, Saab said.
Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government’s version of events.
Three local authorities said there had been a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near Maduro’s speech where smoke could be seen streaming out of a window. They provided no further details on how they had reached that conclusion.
A Colombian official with the president’s office described Maduro’s claims that Santos was involved in the attack as baseless.
Adding to the confusion, a little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target.
This message could not be verified for authenticity. We showed that they are vulnerable,’ the group said in a tweet. ‘It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time.
David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said the incident did not appear to be a staged attack by Maduro’s government for political gain. © Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited The site of the attack in central Caracas where the nation’s president was the target of a.
The ‘amateurish’ attack prompted embarrassing images of Maduro cut off mid-sentence with droves of soldiers running away in fear, making the president appear vulnerable, Smilde noted. Despite the optics, Smilde said he suspected that Maduro would nonetheless find a way to take advantage of it.
He will use it to concentrate power, Smilde said. ‘Whoever did this, he’ll use it to further restrict liberty and purge the government and armed forces.
The event had been just one more of many Maduro routinely holds with members of the military, a key faction of Venezuelan society whose loyalty he has clung to as the nation struggles with crippling hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.
‘We are going to bet for the good of our country, Maduro declared triumphantly moments before the explosion. ‘The hour of the economy recovery has come.’
Images being shared on social media showed officers surrounding Maduro with what appeared to be a black bullet-proof barrier as they escorted him from the site. Maduro said at no point did he panic, confident the military would protect him.
‘That drone came after me,’ he said. ‘But there was a shield of love that always protects us. I’m sure I’ll live for many more years.