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Drone Assassin Fails To Kill Venezuelan President

The president of Venezuela survived what appears to have been a drone attack last week. Drones armed with explosives flew directly toward him during a speech.


(Guards protect Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro)

Live footage of the event showed him suddenly looking up startled mid-speech, while beside him his wife, Cilia Flores, winces after a loud bang.

Dozens of soldiers are also seen scattering during the event to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Venezuelan national guard in the capital of Caracas.

Seven members of the national guard were hurt during the attack, which the president blamed on far-right elements and Colombia's outgoing president, Juan Manuel Santos...

The president added that there were two explosions, seconds apart, and that he initially thought they were fireworks as part of the military parade.

Venezuela's Minister of Communication, Jorge Rodriguez, said preliminary information showed the explosions came from several "drone-type flying devices" containing explosive charges that detonated in the vicinity of the presidential stage and in some areas of the parade.

(Via CNN.)

This situation was predicted by author Daniel Suarez in his 2012 novel Kill Decision:

So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches to confirm the presence of the target. The spotter descends, and we think it searches the vicinity, looking for the victim's face - probably uses a cheap pocket camera face-detection chip to make a list of human faces that it compares with target photos...

Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.
(Assassination drone)

Update I also recalled this example of a drone attack in Star Wars Episode II; in this case, the payload was poisonous centipedes.

End Update

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