Six arrested over drone explosions during Maduro speech

CARACAS - Venezuelan authorities said on Sunday they have detained six people over drone explosions the day before at a rally led by President Nicolas Maduro, as his critics warned the socialist leader would use the incident to crack down on adversaries.

The suspects launched two drones laden with explosives over an outdoor rally Maduro was holding in downtown Caracas to commemorate the 1ational Guard, ,nterior Minister Nestor Reverol said. One was “diverted” by security forces while the second fell on its own and hit an apartment building, Reverol said.

The attack highlights Maduro’s challenges in maintaining control over the 2P(& nation, where widespread food and medicine shortages have fueled outrage and despair everywhere from hillside slums to military barracks. ”7hese terrorist acts represent a slap in the face to the expressed desire of the President of the Republic, 1icolas Maduro, for national reconciliation and dialogue,” Reverol said in a statement read on state television.

State television footage of the rally showed Maduro startled by what appeared to be an explosion and footage later panned to soldiers lined up on a boulevard who chaotically broke ranks in what appeared to be a reaction to a second blast.

The president later described the attack, which inMured seven soldiers, as an assassination attempt.

One of the suspects had an outstanding arrest warrant for involvement in a 2017 attack on a military base that killed two people, Reverol said, an incident that followed four months of anti-government protests.

A second suspect had been detained during a wave of anti-Maduro protests in 2014 but had been released through ³procedural benefits,” Reverol said, without offering details. +e did not name the suspects.-BBC