Nicolás Maduro made remarks amid reports that his agents had seized an opposition leader from his home

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has vowed to strike back at the “hired guns and terrorists” he claims were behind a bungled attempt to assassinate him, as authorities ordered the arrest of one prominent opposition lawmaker and seized another from his home.

During a two-hour televised address from the Miraflores presidential palace, Maduro described how he had dodged death when rightwing conspirators sent two “murderous”, explosive-laden drones to kill him during a military parade in Caracas on Saturday afternoon.

Play Video 0:32 Explosion goes off during speech by Venezuelan president – video

“It was a truly miraculous day. We were saved by a miracle,” said Maduro, who was surrounded by his country’s military and political elite and a number of bandaged officials who he said had been injured in the attack.



Crackdown feared after Venezuelan president survives alleged drone attack Read more

“I looked Death in the face! I saw Death right before me and I said: ‘It’s not my time! Get out of here, Death! ... And that’s what gave me the strength and the courage to carry on staring Death in the face,” continued Maduro late on Tuesday.

Maduro said the “terrorist attack” was a turning point in a long-running conspiracy to overthrow the “Bolivarian revolution” whose leadership he inherited after Chávez’s death in 2013. “The central objective wasn’t just to kill a president but to kill a country, to kill hope, to kill the light of peace.”

Venezuela’s president, who was re-elected in May despite widespread domestic and international condemnation, vowed that those behind the botched attack would receive the “hardest and heaviest punishments” possible under his country’s law. Police and security services were already rounding up those culprits who had not already been caught: “We must … ensure that such a terrorist attack never repeats itself.”

As Maduro spoke, agents from his feared Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, Sebin, were reportedly closing in on some of those identified by Maduro as plotters, seizing Juan Requesens, a 29-year-old opposition lawmaker, from his apartment in Caracas. Footage purportedly showing the moment of his detention was posted on Twitter by Requesens’ party, First Justice.



Quick guide Why is Venezuela in crisis? Show Hide Under the late Hugo Chávez, who ushered in Venezuela’s socialist revolution in 1999, a new constitution and numerous elections placed nearly all government institutions under the control of the ruling Socialist party. This concentration of power was aided by a feuding opposition which carried out ineffectual campaigns and electoral boycotts. After Chávez died of cancer in 2013, he was succeeded by Nicolás Maduro who is even less tolerant of dissent. Growing political authoritarianism has coincided with greater state dominance over the economy. But expropriations, price controls and mismanagement have led to a 40% contraction of the economy in the past five years. Oil accounts for 96% of Venezuela’s export income but many foreign companies have been driven out and production has dropped to a 30-year low. The resulting fiscal crisis has prompted the government to print more money, which has led to hyperinflation and a collapse of the currency. It also means that the government can’t import enough food and medicine to meet demand. Maduro has rejected economic reforms out of loyalty to socialism and because many government officials are allegedly getting rich off the economic distortions – through exchange rate scams and by selling scarce food on the black market.



In a second video, the politician’s father tells reporters: “We do not know where he is and we have the constitutional right to know his whereabouts.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Venezuela’s supreme court announced it had ordered the arrest of Julio Borges, another lawmaker from the same party, on charges of “continuous public instigation”, treason and Maduro’s attempted murder.

Borges rejected those claims in a video posted on his official Twitter account. “No-one in Venezuela wants violence. The only person who promotes violence is called Nicolás Maduro.”

Members of Venezuela’s constituent assembly were on Wednesday expected to agree to scrap immunity for opposition lawmakers found to have been involved in the apparent assassination attempt.

Speaking to Reuters, one opposition figure admitted involvement in the alleged plot and cast it as part of an organised armed “resistance” movement designed to unseat a president who has led Venezuela into an economic crisis so severe hundreds of thousands of citizens are fleeing abroad.

“We had an objective and in the moment we were not able to materialize it 100% [but] ... the armed struggle will continue,” said Salvatore Lucchese, a former municipal police chief, during an interview in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá.

Experts have warned that Maduro is likely to use Saturday’s attack as a pretext to crack down on his many political foes and predict a period of increased repression in the crisis-stricken South American nation.

On Tuesday night, Diosdado Cabello, one of the most powerful figures in Maduro’s government, reinforced those fears, vowing to relentlessly pursue those behind the botched “magnicide”.

“Justice is coming, and with a vengeance,” he tweeted.