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Venezuelan President Survives Drone Assassination Attempt (cnn.com)

The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, has survived an apparent assassination attempt involving drones that exploded close to him while he was speaking at an event in Caracas. State television showed Maduro abruptly cutting short his speech during a celebration of the National Guard's 81st anniversary. From a report: In a tweet, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, called the incident at the military parade a "terrorist attack against the president and the high military command blaming the opposition for the violence." Venezuela's international government broadcaster, TeleSUR, said on Twitter that the Venezuelan government confirmed an attempted attack on Maduro. Venezuela's vice president for communications, Jorge Rodriguez, later addressed the nation on live TV at the request of Maduro. He said people heard explosions that corresponded to drones and heard drones detonate near a parade for the occasion.

7 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. Alleged Drone Assassination Attempt by mentil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it was an actual assassination attempt against the Venezuelan President is dubious, given there were at least two explosions and he was healthy enough to appear on live TV a couple hours later. How far away the explosions were from him was only vaguely referenced, but apparently was close enough to the parade that he thought they were fireworks. He was on a stage, which was presumably to the side of the parade's path. A few people supposedly responsible were arrested, so it's not like an anonymous attacker was controlling the drones (or they were, but a convenient patsy was arrested). That said, no evidence was given that drones were involved.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  2. Since we're quoting Bernie by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Informative
    why not include the full quote:

    These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, VENEZUELA and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?

    His point was that 3 "Banana Republics" had more equally distributed wealth than what is ostensibly the Greatest Nation on Earth. He was right to point that out, but like all popular politicians fighting against the American oligarchy he's got to be careful how he says things least people take quotes out of context to smear him.

    --
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  3. Re: Assassination? Or Hoax? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 5, Informative

    he is simply reacting to tariffs in other countries.
    The EU has tariffs on US products in the range of 6%, the US has tariffs on EU products in the range of 4% ... I don't see a big difference.

    Jumping up and putting tariffs in the range of 20% on selected EU products makes no sense IMHO.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  4. Re: Assassination? Or Hoax? by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Soviet Union showed that a planned economy is workable.....it just doesn't grow as quickly.

    Laughable. The Soviet Union ended up dirt poor after decades of lying to each other about what was actually being accomplished. Lost the cold war simply by running out of money. Classic quote from the era: "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." What definition of "workable" is that?

    Never mind the police state.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  5. Re: Assassination? Or Hoax? by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Informative

    "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us" is funny hyperbole.

    It was not hyperbole in the slightest. Saw it with my own eyes.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  6. Re:Assassination? Or Hoax? by Type44Q · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...and the first world nations don't care enough about South America to bother to assassinate him

    Translation: "I don't know enough about geopolitics - who does? - to really have any fucking clue who would or wouldn't want Maduro dead... but damn it sure is easy to send bold declarations like the above ripping forth from my asshole...

  7. Lack of details ... by kbahey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sounds that may be explosions were heard during his speech. That much cannot be disputed.

    Maduro says right wing plot, Colombia president, yadda yadda ...

    However, fire fighters on the scene said it is a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near where the speech was.

    Neither side gave more details, and in this climate and culture of conspiracies, it is hard to get to the real facts.

    Long version of the above on the BBC.