Attempted Drone Assassination of President Nicolás Maduro
Just after 1730 (local time) on Saturday August 4, 2018, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reportedly survived an assassination attempt after several drone explosions interrupted his speech at a celebration of the 81st anniversary of the National Guard.
This is not the first time we have seen drones used as a means of carrying out targeted attacks, reconnaissance or related stunts in recent years. Assuming reporting of the incident to be accurate in its assertion that this was an assassination attempt on the President, it would be the first time a commercial drone was used in an attempted assassination against a dignitary.
We assume that we will see the continued use of drones for a number of nefarious purposes as well as larger scale attacks in the future against urban and civilian targets in different security domains. It will also become a larger area of focus in dignitary protection, aviation security, public events security, and critical infrastructures protection.
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