Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he has information that former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) planned to send mercenaries to Caracas in order to physically eliminate the head of the Bolivarian Republic, Reuters reported.

“It is a plan for 32 mercenaries to enter [Venezuela] to try to assassinate me and leaders of the revolution,” Maduro said. “But we are here, protected by God.”

An attempt to kill the President of Venezuela with unmanned aerial vehicles with explosives was made in Caracas on August 4, 2018, when he spoke at a ceremony in honor of the 81st anniversary of the creation of the National Bolivarian Guard.

The head of state blamed the Venezuelan ultra-right along with the Colombian ultra-right and Juan Manuel Santos, who was then in charge of Colombia. The Foreign Ministry of this country called the allegations absurd.