Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday he escaped an "assassination" attempt using an explosive-laden drone, after a live broadcast showed him looking confused when a bang went off during a Caracas military parade and dozens of soldiers scuttling for safety. “It was an attack to kill me, they tried to assassinate me today,” he said in a state broadcast, speaking of a “flying object (that) exploded in front of me.”

Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez said there was “an explosive charge… detonated close to the presidential podium” and in several other spots along the parade held in central Caracas. "Maduro, who was unharmed, was speaking at a celebration of the 81st anniversary of the National Guard, when detonations from "various drones" near the presidential area and along the parade route occurred, Jorge Rodriguez, the Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information, said on Venezuelan state television. Maduro, however, said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was responsible, a claim the Colombian government has called “absurd.” He also alleged that elements within the US were part of "a right-wing plot" to kill him. While Maduro was speaking about Venezuela's economy at the event, television images showed Maduro and others looking startled after the sound of multiple explosions could be heard. Maduro said initial investigations indicated that “several of those intellectually responsible and the financiers of this attack live in the United States, in the state of Florida.” He called on Donald Trump to fight these “terrorist groups.”

A group called Soldiers in T-shirts used social media to claim responsibility for the drone attack, though it has offered no evidence.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro blames an alleged assassination attempt on Colombia and Venezuelan exiles in the U.S. state of Florida.