Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says coup was backed by the US

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says his government had blocked what he called a U.S.-backed coup plot that included plans to attack the presidential palace with a military jet.

"It is the government of the United States that is behind the plans of destabilization and coups against Venezuela. I have come here to denounce it. ... We have dismantled a coup attempt against democracy, against the stability of our homeland," Maduro said in a televised address Thursday. "It was an attempt to use a group of officials from the air force to provoke a violent act, an attack."

He didn't name which members of the military were allegedly involved, but claimed that the U.S. government and right-wing opposition groups in Venezuela were behind the plan.

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