Six held for bid to kill Maduro

DRONES: ‘SOLDIERS IN T-SHIRTS’ CLAIM THE ATTACK

Venezuela’s president directs blame at Colombian leader and domestic oppostion.

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 there could be more “in the coming hours”.

Three soldiers were in a critical condition and four more were injured in the alleged attack involving two remote-controlled drones, Reverol said. He described it as “a crime of terrorism and assassination” and said the “material and intellectual authors inside and outside the country” had been identified.

Venezuela’s opposition braced for “persecution and repression” as the army pledged “unconditional” loyalty to radical socialist leader Maduro. He vowed to inflict “maximum punishment” on those who tried “to assassinate me”.

He pointed at outgoing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and “the ultra-right wing”, a term he uses to describe domestic opposition. A mysterious rebel group claimed responsibility.

ack involved two drones, each carrying a kilogramme of the plastic explosive C4, which Reverol said was “capable of causing effective damage over a 50m radius”.

He said one drone flew over the tribune where Maduro was giving a speech, but was “disoriented by signal-inhibiting equipment” and was thus “activated outside the assassins’ planned perimeter”. The second drone crashed.

State television images showed Maduro looking up with a start after a bang, as bodyguards jump in front of him with ballistic shields. The broadcast was quickly cut. Maduro said he had “no doubt” that Colombia’s Santos was “behind the attack”.

Santos said this week that the Venezuelan “regime has to fall” and he could “see it happening in the near future”.

Colombia’s foreign ministry denied involvement.

Maduro also said investigations pointed to financial backers who “live in the US in Florida”. But US National Security Advisor John Bolton insisted there was “no US government involvement”.

Late on Saturday, a rebel group calling itself the National Movement of Soldiers in T-Shirts claimed responsibility in a statement passed to US-based 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 indoctrinates communism,” said the statement.