On Saturday 7 August, an apparent assassination attempt against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro was captured on television. Maduro was speaking at a televised military parade when the sound of an explosion was heard, and the people on stage surrounding him started to scatter.
The authorities report that two drones loaded with explosives were used in the attack, and that the military was able to deflect one of the drones off its course. The other hit an apartment building near the location of the speech, leaving several people injured. Several soldiers were reportedly wounded.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Néstor Luis Reverol said that six people had been detained in relation to the attack. Reverol said that all “material and intellectual authors inside and outside of the country” had been identified and that the detained persons had conspired with others in Bogota, Colombia and Miami. So far, no evidence has been presented. Authorities searched near-by hotels, and the apartment building hit by the drone.
Opposition leaders are concerned that the incident could be used as a justification to intensify criminalisation of the Venezuelan opposition movement. Some doubt the veracity of the incident for this reason, or are waiting for more video evidence of the attack. Maduro and his allies have already said that the attack is proof that there is an international plot to overthrow him.
The opposition coalition Ample Front published in a statement: “We are alerting against the government attempting to deviate the focus of international and national public opinion from the crisis, and to criminalise those who democratically oppose it.”
The Catholic Church has been heavily critical of Maduro, whose Socialist policies have reduced the country’s economy to ruin and precipitated an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees. At the time of going to press it had not commented on the incident.
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