Venezuela arrests 6 over failed assassination attempt on Maduro
Venezuela has arrested six "terrorists and hired killers" over a failed assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro.
On Sunday, Interior and Justice Minister Nestor Reverol made the announcement, adding that "several vehicles have been seized and hotel raids carried out in Caracas where important information was collected."
He added that those detained were already wanted in connection with last year's raid on a northern military.
He also noted that the attack had been carried out with two remotely operated drones each carrying a kilogram of plastic explosive C4 which was "capable of causing effective damage over a 50-meter radius."
One of the drones reached close to the location of the president but then it became "disoriented by signal inhibiting equipment" and was thus "activated outside the assassins' planned perimeter."
He added that the second drone had collided with a nearby building.
Reverol that the attack was a crime of terrorism and assassination" that the "material and intellectual authors inside and outside the country" had been identified, with further arrests "in the coming hours" possible.
Venezuela's president and his wife as well as top government officials escaped unharmed from the assassination attempt. However, the government said seven soldiers were wounded.
Maduro blamed Colombia for the attack, though an unknown rebel group later claimed responsibility.
The Venezuelan president often claims that the United States, which has imposed sanctions against officials in his government, is orchestrating attempts to topple him as part of a wider offensive against Latin American leaders defying the US hegemony.
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