Venezuelan president Nicols Maduro survives drone assassination attempt

[Scurrilous]

Source: The Guardian

"Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has survived an apparent assassination attempt involving drones which exploded close to him while he was speaking at an event in Caracas.

State television showed Maduro abruptly cutting short his speech during a celebration of the National Guard’s 81st anniversary.

The hundreds of soldiers present were shown breaking ranks and scattering.

The Venezuelan information minister Jorge Rodriguez said there had been an “attack” against the president involving several drones loaded with explosives."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/04/nicolas-maduros-speech-cut-short-while-soldiers-scatter

---

Link to tweet

[Eugene]

1. 🤦🏿 Now that idiot will claim justification for cracking down further.

[Farmer-Rick]

32. The crazy crony capitalists will now be out in force.

Saying how much they wished Traitor Trump had planned an undercover maneuver that hadn't failed. Your tax dollars working to smoother all resistance to capitalism.

Is Daddy Little Putin proud?

[ansible]

2. Shame the drones didn't get close enough

Fuck Maduro

[Eugene]

5. It was damn stupid whoever tried it.

But nobody has said yet that the U.S. tried to kill that buffoon. That said, I'll admit that the Trump gang is capable of this level of idiocy.

No love for Maduro, but few sane people want to make a martyr out of him.

[heaven05]

11. You are saying DU is a freak show

Right? If so please refrain from calling us freaks. The only freaks are those who voted for DoofusTrump or sat out the election whining about the Democratic Party and how unfair it is to certain factions. So I'm part of a freak show, right?

[customerserviceguy]

30. If the US had done this

they very likely would have succeeded. My guess is that this was an unprofessional attempt.

[cstanleytech]

10. You mean "some" just like "some" Venezuelans are major contributors to

helping to smuggle illegal narcotics into the United States.

[SkyDancer]

4. Another video here

This is scary.

Link to tweet

[Scurrilous]

6. Thanks!

[Archae]

7. Anyone care to bet Maduro's own goons sent those drones?

Not because his goons don't like him anymore, no, this sure looks like a stunt Maduro himself set up, to "justify" his taking more and more dictatorial powers.

(Reichstag Fire, anyone?)

[Archae]

14. I don't trust Maduro.

His goon squads put down any hint of dissent against the ruling party, Maduro himself, his family and Chavez's family are very wealthy, the Venezuelan economy is one of the worst in the world.

No, I don't have any proof the attack was created by Maduro.
But it has happened before. MANY times, a dictator trumps up a fake "attack."

[cstanleytech]

17. Its certainly not out of the realm of possibility for it to have been staged

so as to justify cracking down even further as other people have used supposed threats and or attacks to justify some pretty atrocious stuff in history.
I mean heck look at how the Japanese Americans were rounded up and imprisoned without trial during WWII for example.

[christx30]

25. I think so. Most of the world thinks

Erodogan created the coup a few years ago to round up anyone that opposed him and consolidate his power.
It's super swell Turkey is a NATO ally. I wouldn't put it past Maduro to do the same thing, though, on Venezuela's dime, it wasn't going to be a full on fake coup. A drone with a grenade is cheaper.

[James48]

13. Hmmmm

Who has the technology to launch a Drone Swarm attack against the Socialist President of Venezuela? I’ll give you a couple of guesses-

Do you think the CIA did it under orders from Trump to go stir sh-t up?

Or perhaps Putin ordered it, to further destabilize the West.

Who else has that capability?

[pecosbob]

16. I suspect it's pretty much an off the shelf purchase these days if you have enough cash

I suspect there are a few para-military superstores on the dark web by now...one stop shopping for mayhem. Still...not a headline you see every day.

[cstanleytech]

18. Like pecosbob said there are some pretty sophisticated drones out on the open market

these days and they do not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars either.
Besides if the CIA wanted to kill Maduro they could have done it years ago but the truth is that ultimately his being in charge does not matter to the US or atleast not currently as the majority of our countries interest is in the middle east as well as Asia and Europe.

[NickB79]

19. Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan have used them

Pretty much a remote-controlled grenade pin puller.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/world/middleeast/iraq-drones-isis.html

[Igel]

20. Putin and Maduro tend to be buddies.

Venezuela has no need for the CIA to stir up shit. It's a giant bubbling cauldron of it. The only question would be who would actually be able to go to Radio Shack and buy drones. They're not that expensive, but considering the inflation rate in Venezuela ...

The other question is who has C4, if that is what caused the explosions. That's a lot harder to buy. Radio Shack doesn't carry it. In fact, I'm betting that it's pretty controlled in Venezuela (unless you take into account corruption).

[stevenleser]

36. When I was a kid, what is now called drones were called remote controlled planes

Anyone in the 1970s with $200 could buy a cheap one. Spend $1000-2000 and you could buy one capable of carrying a small payload. Now, 40-50 years later, I am sure it is still easy to buy a remote controlled plane and stuff it with whatever you want. You don’t have to be one of the worlds top militaries or intelligence agencies to have one.

[Perseus]

21. Rumors are that it is a Cuban show, a pro-Maduro show

But I think the World should see how coward the Venezuelan military is, I have never seen a military run from fear due to the sounds of fireworks.

[sandensea]

22. Interesting news. Several injured, so I understand.

Please consider posting this in the Latin America group as well, Scurrilous.

It'll make for plenty of lively debate there too, I promise you that.

[Scurrilous]

23. ...

[sandensea]

24. Thanks. I just saw an update:

The group Soldados de Franela claims responsibility for the attack with drones against Nicolás Maduro

The Venezuelan armed opposition group Soldados de Franela ('Flannel Soldiers') claimed responsibility for this Saturday's attack against President Nicolás Maduro during a military act in Caracas.

"We showed that they are vulnerable, it was not achieved today but it is a matter of time," they said through their social media accounts.

"The operation was to fly over two drones loaded with C4 to the objective, the presidential box. Snipers of the honor guard shot down the drones before reaching the target ," the group explained.

The Soldados de Franela group is known in Venezuela because it was integrated by Óscar Pérez, the former policeman who rebelled against the Maduro regime in mid-2017, leading attacks on government buildings and military bases. He died in an ambush of Government forces on January 15.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infobae.com%2Famerica%2Fvenezuela%2F2018%2F08%2F04%2Fel-grupo-soldados-de-franela-se-adjudico-el-ataque-con-drones-contra-nicolas-maduro%2F&edit-text=

Whatever one thinks of Maduro and his government, I'm glad more people weren't hurt. This group promised to try again though.

[Fred Sanders]

28. That drones out all the conspiracy theories on

the thread. Party pooper!

[joshcryer]

29. I'm really skeptical about this.

The Twitter feed of the people claiming responsibility reads like fantasy. Never heard of this group before outside of Twitter. If you go back in their feed it's like some nutter right winger who posts random rantings about goings on there. Not some leader of some protest / rebel group. In fact scrolling through I can see a lot of their videos aren't their own and they may actually not even live in Venezuela.

And there are reports that an apartment had a gas explosion near the speech group, and that journalists with a TV station were arrested shortly afterward. Some reports that a drone was shot down but it was a TV stations.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. Maduro blames Colombian President Santos

From the Guardian OP link:

Maduro, speaking from the presidential palace two hours after the attack, announced that those behind the attempt on his life had been captured.

“I am alive and victorious,” the socialist president said in a bellicose televised address, before blaming the attack on the government of neighbouring Colombia.

“Everything points to the Venezuelan ultra-right in alliance with the Colombian ultra-right, and that the name of [Colombian president] Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack.”

A spokesperson for Santos – who leaves office on Tuesday – quickly shot the allegations down. “This has no base,” the official said. “The president is focused on the baptism of his granddaughter and not on bringing down foreign governments.”

[stevenleser]

37. This is one of the things the extreme left and extreme right have in common

When in power, both extremes will cynically use events like these as a reichstag fire event, blaming their favorite whipping boys and justifying whatever desired action they intend to take next.

[nitpicker]

31. Link to BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45073385

[Bernardo de La Paz]

33. It was a gas tank at an apartment building

Charred windows were seen near the place where President Maduro was speaking

From the BBC report:

firefighters at the scene disputed the government's version of events, the Associated Press reports.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, three of them said the incident was actually a gas tank explosion inside an apartment, but did not provide further details, the news agency says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45073385

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

34. You're taking the fun out of Maduro's outrage at his enemies.

An accident? All his parading soldiers ran away because of an exploding cheeseburger?

Oh, the humanity

[left-of-center2012]

35. NBC says it was just a gas canister in a building that exploded

Willie Geist on this morning’s ‘Sunday Today’ just said the explosion was a gas canister in a nearby building that exploded.

No drones.

No assassination attack.

[Eugene]

38. Venezuela 'drone attack': Six arrests made

Source: BBC

Venezuela 'drone attack': Six arrests made

5 August 2018

Six people have been arrested in Venezuela for involvement in an apparent assassination attempt on President Nicolás Maduro, the interior minister says.

Nestor Reverol said they were part of a group that loaded two drones with explosives and set them off during a military parade in the capital Caracas.

Mr Maduro has warned the perpetrators face "maximum punishment".

He has blamed Colombia for the incident but provided no evidence.

Colombia said the accusation was "baseless".

The government has also pointed the finger at the opposition, prompting fears of a new crackdown.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45077057

[melm00se]

39. Drones

http://www.dronesglobe.com/guide/heavy-lift-drones/

most of which are available on Amazon