Venezuela’s oil minister said on Friday that security forces have thwarted an attack on a key refinery, as the nation with vast oil reserves struggles to meet its domestic gasoline demands, The Associated Press reported.
Two Venezuelans were arrested Thursday, and investigators confiscated explosives the suspects reportedly planned to use in an attack on the El Palito refinery on northern Caribbean coast, Minister of Petroleum Tareck El Aissami said in a televised announcement.
Officials showed images of explosives and other material as proof of what El Aissami called a terrorist plot. He said the two suspects confessed to taking orders from Colombian officials.
El Aissami called upon Venezuelan oil workers to “be vigilant amid an ongoing threat from international adversaries such as the United States and Colombia” to harm the South American nation.
Earlier this week, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro unveiled a plot to assassinate him during the country’s recent legislative elections.
Maduro indicated a few days ago that he had changed his polling station, “because there was information about a plot to assassinate me,” adding that “a very reliable Colombian intelligence source told me that the assassination was planned to be live.”
The Venezuelan president noted that “the assassination was planned with the participation of Colombian President Ivan Duque”.
Maduro has already survived an assassination attempt on 6 August 2018, amidst continuing imperialist attempts to attack Venezuela.
