6 HELD OVER ATTACK ON MADURO
Opposition braces for ‘persecution and repression’ following assassination bid
SIX “terrorists and hired killers” have been arrested in Venezuela accused of trying to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro in an alleged drone attack, the government said on Sunday.
Interior and Justice Minister Nestor Reverol announced the arrests on state television, saying more could be on the way “in the coming hours”.
Three soldiers were in critical condition and four more were injured in the alleged attack that involved two remote-controlled drones, Reverol said.
He described it as “a crime of terrorism and assassination” and said that the “material and intellectual authors inside and outside the country” had been identified.
Venezuela’s opposition braced itself for “persecution and repression” as the armed forces vowed “unconditional” loyalty to radical socialist leader Maduro who, standing with his wife on a reviewing stand, was unharmed in the incident.
Maduro vowed to inflict “maximum punishment” on those who tried “to assassinate me”. He pointed the finger at outgoing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and “the ultraright wing” — a term he uses to describe domestic opposition — even as a mysterious rebel group claimed responsibility.
“There will be no forgiveness,” Maduro warned, for what a military statement said was an act of “barbarism in a desperate attempt to destabilise” the government.
But Nicmer Evans, a former government loyalist and now leader of the opposition Frente Amplio party, said he feared the government’s measures “open the door to persecution and a wave of repression”.
Those worries came as Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez voiced the military’s “unconditional and unrestricted loyalty to our commander in chief ”.
The Patriotic Pole coalition of parties allied with the government called for a march here yesterday to back Maduro.
Army general Padrino Lopez described Saturday’s incident as “an aggression against the military” aimed at provoking regime change “through unconstitutional means”.
The alleged attack involved two drones, each carrying 1kg of the plastic explosive C4, which Reverol said on state television is “capable of causing effective damage over a 50m radius.”
He said one drone flew over the tribune where Maduro was giving a speech, but that it became “disoriented by signal-inhibiting equipment” and was thus “activated outside the assassins’ planned perimeter”. The second drone lost control and crashed into a nearby building, Reverol added.
State television images showed Maduro looking up with a start after hearing a bang, as National Guardsmen lined up in the parade scattered in fright.
No drones could be seen in the television broadcast, which showed bodyguards jumping in front of Maduro to protect him with flexible ballistic shields. The broadcast was quickly cut.
Late Saturday, a rebel group calling itself the National Movement of Soldiers in T-Shirts claimed responsibility in a statement passed to United Statesbased opposition journalist Patricia Poleo.
“We cannot tolerate that the population is suffering from hunger, that the sick do not have medicine, that the currency has no value, or that the education system neither educates nor teaches, only indoctrinating communism,” said the statement, accusing the regime of having “made public office an obscene way to get rich”.