Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has stated once more that the US was directly involved in the attempt on his life in 2018 using a drone, and he has added that the Colombian president who was then supported by the US was also a co-conspirator in the plot.
Maduro claimed that both the United States and Colombia were involved in the attack while speaking on Friday at a ceremony to commemorate the 86th anniversary of the founding of the Venezuelan National Guard, which fell on the same day as the aborted assassination attempt in 2018.
Maduro emphasized that the plot to kill him was orchestrated by his former US counterpart, Donald Trump because the White House gave the order.
Then-President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, according to subsequent investigations, was Trump’s ally, he claimed.
Days before he was scheduled to step down from office, Santos was “the direct operator from Bogota,” according to Maduro, who also claimed that a “terrorist group” based in Colombia was responsible for the failed attempt.
Both Washington and Bogota have denied any involvement in the attack. At the time, John Bolton, the US national security advisor, even asserted that the attack was “a pretext set up by the regime itself”.
On August 4, 2018, two assassination drones carrying explosives exploded over the podium where Maduro was addressing National Guard members outside in Caracas.
Maduro escaped the incident unscathed, but the explosions injured a number of soldiers.
The explosions were captured on camera, and Maduro’s bodyguards can be seen swooping in to shield the president with ballistic shields before escorting him away.
The seventeen suspects connected to the incident received sentences ranging from five to thirty years in prison following 91 separate court hearings that lasted until August 2022.
However, President Nicolas Maduro once condemned the United States for excluding Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela from an upcoming Summit of the Americas to be held June 6-10 in Los Angeles in US state of California
