CARACAS (Reuters) - At least one explosion rocked a military event where Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was giving a speech on Saturday and the government said it was a failed assassination attempt involving drones carrying explosives. 
 
 Maduro said “everything points” to a right-wing plot that initial investigation suggested was linked to Colombia and the U.S. state of Florida, where many Venezuelan exiles live. Several perpetrators were caught, he said, without elaborating. 
 
 Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said drones loaded with explosives detonated close to the military event in downtown Caracas. A Venezuelan who was visiting family nearby told Reuters she heard two explosions. 
 
 Maduro, a leftist who replaced President Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013, was unharmed but Rodriguez said seven National Guard soldiers were injured. 
 
 “This was an assassination attempt, they tried to assassinate me,” Maduro said in a later televised address. 
 
 A little-known group called the “National Movement of Soldiers in T-shirts” claimed responsibility for the attack. In a series of posts on social media, the group said it had planned to fly two drones but that snipers shot them down. 
 
 “We demonstrated that they are vulnerable. We didn’t have success today, but it’s just a question of time,” said the group, which says it was founded in 2014 to bring together all of Venezuela’s “groups of resistance.” 
 
 The group did not respond to several requests for information from Reuters. 
 
 Maduro won a new six-year term in May but his main rivals disavowed the election and alleged massive irregularities. 
 
 Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores attend a military event in Caracas, Venezuela, August 4, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS 
 
 Venezuela is suffering under the fifth year of a severe economic crisis that has sparked malnutrition, hyperinflation and mass emigration. 
 
 Maduro named Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as being behind the attack, but gave no evidence to back that up. 
 
 “The name of Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack ... the initial investigations point to Bogota,” Maduro said. 
 
 A Colombian government source said Maduro’s allegation was “absurd” and that Santos was celebrating his granddaughter’s baptism on Saturday. “He is not thinking of anything else, least of all bringing down foreign governments,” the source said. 
 
 During the incident, Maduro was speaking about Venezuela’s economy in an address when audio of the live television coverage was suddenly cut off. 
 
 Maduro and others on the podium looked up startled and the cameras panned to soldiers who had been lined up in formation in the street. Scores of them ran in panic away from one area. 
 
 Photographs on social media appeared to show bodyguards shielding Maduro with black bulletproof panels. A photograph also showed an injured military official clutching his bloody head and being held up by colleagues. 
 
 OPEC member Venezuela’s once-thriving socialist economy has collapsed since the 2014 fall of oil prices. 
 
 The self-described “son” of Chavez, former bus driver Maduro says he is battling an “imperialist” plot to destroy socialism and take over Venezuela’s oil. Opponents accuse him of authoritarianism, saying he has destroyed a once-wealthy economy and ruthlessly crushed dissent. 
 
 Slideshow (7 Images) 
 
 Maduro said initial investigations indicated that “several of those intellectually responsible and the financiers of this attack live in the United States, in the state of Florida.” He called on U.S. President Donald Trump to “fight these terrorist groups.” 
 
 A senior State Department official said: “We’ve heard the reports coming out of Venezuela. We are carefully following the situation.” 
 
 Last year, a rogue Venezuelan police officer hijacked a helicopter and fired at government buildings in what he said was an action against a dictator. The officer was hunted down and killed by Venezuelan forces. 

 In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, security personnel surround Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro during an incident as he was giving a speech in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug.... (Associated Press) 
 
 CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro dodged an apparent assassination attempt when drones armed with explosives detonated while he was delivering a speech to hundreds of soldiers being broadcast live on television, officials said. 
 
 Caught by surprise mid-speech, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, looked up at the sky and winced Saturday after hearing the sound of an explosion pierce the air. 
 
 "This was an attempt to kill me," he said later in an impassioned retelling of the events. "Today they attempted to assassinate me." 
 
 Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the incident took place shortly after 5:30 p.m. as Maduro was celebrating the National Guard's 81st anniversary. The visibly shaken head of state said he saw a "flying device" that exploded before his eyes. He thought it might be a pyrotechnics display in honor of the event. 
 
 Within seconds, Maduro said he heard a second explosion and pandemonium ensued. Bodyguards escorted Maduro out of the event and television footage showed uniformed soldiers standing in formation quickly scattering from the scene. 
 
 He said the "far right" working in coordination with detractors in Bogota and Miami, including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, were responsible. Some of the "material authors" of the apparent attack have been detained. 
 
 "The investigation will get to the bottom of this," he said. "No matter who falls." 
 
 Venezuela's government routinely accuses opposition activists of plotting to attack and overthrow Maduro, a deeply unpopular leader who was recently elected to a new term in office in a vote decried by dozens of nations. Maduro has steadily moved to concentrate power as the nation reels from a crippling economic crisis. 
 
 In the midst of near-daily protests last year, a rogue police officer flew a stolen helicopter over the capital and launched grenades at several government buildings. Oscar Perez was later killed in a deadly gun battle after over six months on the lam. 
 
 Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the attempted assassination targeted not only Maduro, but rather the military's entire high command on stage with the president. 
 
 Prosecutors have already launched their investigation and obtained critical details from the suspects in custody, said Saab, adding that he would give more details Monday. 
 
 "We are in the midst of a wave of civil war in Venezuela," Saab said. 
 
 Firefighters at the scene of the blast disputed the government's version of events. Three local authorities said there had been a gas tank explosion inside an apartment near Maduro's speech where smoke could be seen streaming out of a window. They provided no further details on how they had reached that conclusion. 
 
 A Colombian official with the president's office described Maduro's claims that Santos was involved in the attack as baseless. 
 
 Adding to the confusion, a little known group calling itself Soldiers in T-shirts claimed responsibility, saying it planned to fly two drones loaded with explosives at the president, but government soldiers shot them down before reaching its target. The Associated Press could not independently verify the authenticity of the message. 
 
 "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." 
 
 The organization did not respond to a message from The Associated Press. 
 
 David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said the incident did not appear to be a staged attack by Maduro's government for political gain. 
 
 The "amateurish" attack prompted embarrassing images of Maduro cut off mid-sentence with droves of soldiers running away in fear, making the president appear vulnerable, Smilde noted. Despite the optics, Smilde said he suspected that Maduro would nonetheless find a way to take advantage of it. 
 
 "He will use it to concentrate power," Smilde said. "Whoever did this, he'll use it to further restrict liberty and purge the government and armed forces." 
 
 The event had been just one more of many Maduro routinely holds with members of the military, a key faction of Venezuelan society whose loyalty he has clung to as the nation struggles with crippling hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine. 
 
 "We are going to bet for the good of our country," Maduro declared triumphantly moments before the explosion. "The hour of the economy recovery has come." 
 
 Images being shared on social media showed officers surrounding Maduro with what appeared to be a black bullet-proof barrier as they escorted him from the site. Maduro said at no point did he panic, confident the military would protect him. 
 
 "That drone came after me," he said. "But there was a shield of love that always protects us. I'm sure I'll live for many more years." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Armario reported from Miami, Florida. Associated Press video journalist Clbyburn Saint John contributed to this report.
– "This was an assassination attempt, they tried to assassinate me," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in blaming a drone attack Saturday on a far-right plot. As Reuters reports, an explosives-laden drone detonated at a military event in Caracas as Maduro was speaking, leaving the leftist leader unharmed but injuring seven members of Venezuela's National Guard. The event was to celebrate the 81st anniversary of the National Guard. Maduro said he saw a "flying device" that he thought might be part of a fireworks display in his honor; the AP describes him as "visibly shaken" after two explosions were heard. Maduro is blaming rightist detractors he says are linked to Colombia and Florida; he says some "material authors" of the attack are in custody.