The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to the use of drones for violence. The United States has been using drones to attack terrorists for years, but the technology has gotten cheaper, and drones now are available online. Yesterday, someone almost assassinated the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, during a military parade. The BBC reports:

Mr Maduro was speaking at a military event in Caracas when the alleged attack occurred.

Live footage of his speech shows the president suddenly looking upwards - startled - and dozens of soldiers running away.

Soldiers marching before explosion

Bang!

Screen grabs from BBC

The abject disintegration of the military in the face of one explosion does not exactly inspire confidence in their devotion to preserving the socialist system that has ruined the formerly most prosperous country in South America. But maybe the soldiers are so hungry that they were unable to muster the energy to fight. Or maybe some were hopeful that the regime was endingso they could start eating again.

The BBC reports: “Mr Maduro has blamed Colombia for the attack - something denied by Bogota as a ‘baseless’ accusation.” But later reports indicated it may have been a gas explosion in a nearby apartment.

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.

I have no idea who was behind the attack, if it was indeed a drone attack, but the resources of a nation state were not necessary to be able to arm a drone. I would not rule out hardline socialists angered by Maduro’s admission just a few days ago that the socialist model has failed. As AFP reported:

Under-fire Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro admitted his economic model has "failed" in the wake of food and medicine shortages and public service paralysis, such as Tuesday's power failure that affected 80 percent of Caracas.

"The production models we've tried so far have failed and the responsibility is ours, mine and yours," Maduro told his ruling PSUV party congress, as Venezuela looks to tackle chronic inflation the International Monetary Fund predicted would reach one million percent this year.

One thing is certain: this will not be the last attack by drone on a political leader. The next target may be a democratically-elected figure.

Hat tip: Ed Straker