Mr Maduro was part-way through a speech celebrating the National Guard’s 81st anniversary when drones carrying explosives are said to have detonated, prompting pandemonium.

Neat formations of soldiers that had assembled for the event scattered and the president’s bodyguards quickly ushered him away.

The 55-year-old was unharmed in the incident, but seven people were injured, the country’s information minister said, with photographs showing soldiers bleeding as they walked from the scene.

But who is the Venezualan president? And why might there be a plot to kill him?

Rise to power

The son of a prominent trade union leader, Mr Maduro was born in 1962 into a working class family. He went on to demonstrate his own strong political convictions when he became president of the student union at Jose Avalos high school in El Valle, on the edge of Caracas.

He never graduated, according to records, and started working as a bus driver for the Caracas Metro company. There, he joined the Socialist League and established one of the company’s first informal labour syndicates, due to a ban on formal unionisation in the company at the time.

Mr Maduro met erstwhile Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in December 1993 and became a central figure in his Bolivarian Movement, helping to launch the Movement for the Fifth Republic in 1997, which backed Chávez’s presidential run. In 1998, Mr Chávez won a groundbreaking electoral victory and Mr Maduro was elected as an MP.

Mr ​Maduro’s political rise continued and in 1999 he helped draft a new constitution, before going on to serve as deputy at the national assembly. In 2000, he moved to head up the body.

Mr Chávez named Mr Maduro as minister of foreign affairs in 2006 and he went on to make a number of inflammatory statements while in the role.

When, in 2007, then-US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice criticised the Venezualan government for closing a private television station, Mr Maduro called her a hypocrite and compared Guantánamo Bay to Nazi concentration camps.

Government

Mr Maduro became interim leader when Chávez died in March 2013 and won a six-year term in office by only a narrow margin the following month. Since then, like his predecessor, Mr Maduro has proved a divisive figure.

Support for his presidency has been ravaged by devastating economic deterioration. Under his government, Venezuela entered a recession, inflation skyrocketed and shortages of basic provisions became commonplace.

Few expected the leader to be able to win a second term. But he did, securing a second mandate in a presidential election in May. His main rivals disavowed the election, alleging massive irregularities.

His administration has drawn widespread criticised from a number of countries for undermining democracy and violating human rights. Last year, dozens of protesters were killed in clashes during anti-government protests.

The president has steadily concentrated power, setting up a new constituent assembly with the power to bypass and even dissolve the opposition-led National Assembly. The EU and major Latin American nations have refused to recognise the new body.

Enemies

While Mr Maduro has clung on to the support of certain organisations such as the military, his critics are many.

A little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target.

“We showed that they are vulnerable,” the group said in a tweet. “It was not successful today, but it is just a matter of time.”

Since Mr Maduro's election and the economic downturn, opposition parties have rallied together against him, accusing him of driving the economy into the ground, violating human rights and manipulating democratic processes.

Mr Maduro has said the country is the victim of an “economic war” waged by opposition leaders aided by Washington.

The diplomatic relationship between Venezuala and Colombia has also become increasing fraught, as many Venezuelans have been driven into the neighbouring country by hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages.

Last week, Colombia granted more than 440,000 migrants permission to stay in the country for two years and the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been a vocal critic of Mr Maduro

“The whole world is ever more terrified by what is happening in Venezuela,” he said last week. “Such a rich country, a country with the largest oil reserves in the whole world, with a population that is dying of hunger and dying of disease for lack of medicine.”

Colombia refused to recognise Mr Maduro’s victory at the presidential election in May, and accused regime of giving Venezuelan identification cards to Colombians​.

A turbulent year in Venezuela Show all 11 1 /11 A turbulent year in Venezuela A turbulent year in Venezuela Demonstrators scuffle with security forces during an opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela, April 4, 2017. Venezuelan security forces quelled masked protesters with tear gas, water cannons and pepper spray in Caracas after blocking an opposition rally against socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The clashes began after authorities closed subway stations, set up checkpoints and cordoned off a square where opponents had planned their latest protest against the government and the crippling economic crisis. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "For me that was the day that made a difference, never before had I seen the protesters and police clashing men-to-men and struggling back and forward. From then, the strategy of the police changed and they never faced the protesters so close again." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A man who was set on fire by people accusing him of stealing during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro runs amidst opposition supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, May 20, 2017. Marco Bello: "I spotted a man running in front of me as a group of protesters, most of them hooded and with makeshift shields, were chasing him so I followed them. Some 100 meters down the street, the protesters caught the man and surrounded him. When I walked up and went through the circle of people to take pictures, someone had already poured gasoline over the man and set him on fire. Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela "Rowdy groups of government supporters busted into Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly. There were several clashes happening at the same time, so I tried to follow a small group of attackers as they pushed their way through the main building. By the time I got into the building, they had already finished hitting people and were on their way out, leaving behind an opposition lawmaker covered in blood. I quickly went over to the politician, Leonardo Regnault, whose grey suit was spattered in blood. He was up against an ornate wooden door, clearly in a state of shock. Another opposition lawmaker, Luis Stefanelli, was standing next to him, hands up in a sign of surrender and pleading with the attackers to stop the beating. Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A member of the riot security forces points a gun through the fence of an air force base at David Jose Vallenilla, who was fatally injured during clashes at a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A demonstrators attends a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, June 19, 2017. Ivan Alvarado: "I was under the highway photographing some protestors who had surrounded a woman they accused of stealing a phone from someone. I turned around to check what was happening behind me and saw this man appearing from the shadows to see what was going on. The white on his face is salt, which the protestors said helped to reduce the effects of the tear gas." REUTERS A turbulent year in Venezuela Riot security forces clash with demonstrators as a motorcycle is set on fire during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in San Cristobal, Venezuela, May 29, 2017. Carlos Eduardo Ramirez: "Security forces arrived to disperse demonstrators that already had burned two taxis and a bus, throwing tear gas and pellets and the demonstrators' response was to throw molotov cocktails and one of those petrol bombs reached a National Guard member, setting him and the motorbike on fire." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela Riot security forces detain a demonstrator during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, July 28, 2017. Rock-throwing Venezuelans braved tear gas and rainstorms, blocking streets in protest against a legislative super-body to be elected two days later that critics call an attempt by President Nicolas Maduro to create a dictatorship. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "After many hours of very violent clashes between the demonstrators and security forces, the National Guard in an attempt to end the situation, suddenly advanced their line very quickly, even going beyond where I and other photographers were taking cover. All the protesters who did not react fast enough to leave the place were detained." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela Opposition lawmaker Carlos Paparoni is hit by jets of water during riots at a march to the state ombudsman's office in Caracas, Venezuela, May 29, 2017. A group of young Venezuelan lawmakers has risen to prominence on the violent front line of anti-government marches that have shaken the South American country for three months, bringing 75 deaths. On the streets daily leading demonstrators, pushing at security barricades and sometimes picking up teargas canisters to hurl back at police and soldiers, the energetic National Assembly members are heroes to many opposition supporters. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "I remember clearly how instants after I spotted Paparoni standing in front of 'The Whale', the common name of the water cannon armoured cars, he was flying through the air due to the unstoppable power of the water, as if he was a feather. Fellow protesters had to drag him out of the place, because from where I was, he seemed to have been unconscious." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela Flames erupt as clashes break out while the Constituent Assembly election is being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017. Deadly protests rocked Venezuela as opposition voters boycotted an election for a constitutional super-body that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro vowed would begin a 'new era of combat' in the crisis-stricken nation. Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "Suddenly, a bomb exploded in the capital during an opposition protest and wounded seven police officers in what seemed to be the spread of more aggressive tactics. We were taking photos from close by but the police panicked and chased everyone away, firing teargas, rubber bullets and pellets." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela An injured opposition supporter is helped by volunteer members of a primary care response team during clashes with riot security forces at a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, June 22, 2017. Ivan Alvarado: "This image was taken next to an airforce base where another protestor was fatally injured that day. I don't know how this man was injured, I first saw him as the first aid volunteers carried him out from the midst of the tear gas. You can really see the pain in his expression as he cries out. After I took the image the motorbike speeded off down the highway." Reuters A turbulent year in Venezuela A demonstrator shouts slogans in front of police officers during a women's march to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela Reuters

But a Colombian official with the president’s office described Mr Maduro’s claims that Mr Santos was involved in the drone attack as baseless.

No matter who was responsible for the apparent assassination attempt, experts say Mr Maduro will use it to justify further concentration of power.