Maduro sees armed drones, others an LPG blast

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro announced tonight that he was the target of an assassination attempt orchestrated by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and "extreme-right" opponents.

The incident allegedly perpetrated with armed drones occurred during a nationally televised presidential speech in which Maduro, flanked by first lady Celia Flores, defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and other top officials, was presenting the government's plan to rescue the oil-based economy. The plan features a controversial vehicle census that critics say is a veiled attempt to reward loyalists with scarce gasoline.

"Those drones were coming for me," Maduro said in a national address following the alleged assassination attempt. He blamed Santos.

A source in the Colombian president's office called the assertion baseless, adding that Santos "is dedicated to the baptism of his granddaughter and not toppling foreign governments."

Maduro said the perpetrators have already been captured and are being processed based on "material evidence". According to the official account, seven members of the national guard were injured.

During the televised incident in Caracas, Maduro says "the time has come for economic recuperation," after which he and Flores look up, and the official camera shot shifts to a presidential guard, whose eyes dart to one side, and then to the military lined up in parade formation. These are shown quickly dispersing, running to one side before the video is abruptly cut.

Government critics inside and outside Venezuela offered alternative explanations of the incident. A senior Caracas firefighter told Argus that a propane tank exploded in a nearby apartment building. Skeptics say the injured were trampled in the chaos. Others called the incident a deliberate ruse by the government to justify a further crackdown on dissidents. They contend that Caracas is trying to provoke an attack by Colombia on the eve of the 7 August inauguration of conservative president-elect Ivan Duque, who could take a more confrontational stance toward Venezuela.

Venezuela's collapsed economy is forecast to plummet by as much as 22pc this year. Hyperinflation, widespread shortages of food, medicine and fuel, and electricity blackouts have hollowed out the Opec founding country. Crude production, the main official source of government revenue, is currently less than 1.3mn b/d, some half a million barrels less than at the start of the year.

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled, mainly to Colombia, to escape the economic devastation.