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Maduro Accuses Ex-Colombian President Uribe of Plotting His Assassination

© AP Photo / Xinhua via APSecurity personnel surround Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro during an incident as he was giving a speech in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018
Security personnel surround Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro during an incident as he was giving a speech in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018 - Sputnik International
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BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe Velez had planned to hire mercenaries to assassinate him. The last failed assassination of Maduro took place in early August 2018 during a military parade in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.

The presidential box was hit by an explosion caused by two bomb-laden drones, leaving Maduro unharmed, while seven security officers were injured in the incident.

Back then, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry also mentioned former Venezuelan Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz, Colombia’s former President, Juan Manuel Santos, and one of the Venezuelan opposition leaders, Julio Borges, among those behind the attempt to assassinate Maduro, alongside Uribe.

"I have learned about a plan coordinated by Alvaro Uribe Velez involving Colombian Ambassador to the United States Francisco Santo […] to send 32 mercenaries to Venezuela to try to kill me", Maduro said in a speech, aired live on his Twitter late on Wednesday.

Maduro has repeatedly claimed that the United States instructed Colombia to organize his assassination, something denied by both Bogota and Washington.

Last week, the Venezuelan president said that he had evidence, proving that US National Security Adviser John Bolton had masterminded the 2018 attempted assassination of the Venezuelan leader. In December 2018, Maduro accused Bolton of preparing a plan to overthrow and kill him.

Both Bogota and Washington have also denied any involvement in the incident.

Venezuela is experiencing a political crisis that intensified in January after the US-backed opposition leader, Juan Guaido, illegally proclaimed himself interim president.

The United States immediately recognized Guaido, after which some 50 other countries followed suit. Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia and a number of other states have, in the meantime, voiced their support for the legitimate government of constitutionally-elected Maduro.

The United States, as well as the European Union, has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Venezuela and froze its assets.

Maduro has called Guaido a US puppet and accused Washington of orchestrating a change of government in order to claim Venezuelan natural resources.

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