Venezuela: Molotov cocktails thrown at Spain embassy as protests against Nicolas Maduro intensify

Caracas: Two people on motorbikes threw Molotov cocktails at Spain’s embassy in Caracas, but there were no casualties, the prosecutors’ office in Venezuela said. [caption id=“attachment_3769405” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Nicolas Maduro. AP[/caption] Witnesses said one of the homemade bombs — bottles filled with gasoline or other inflammable liquid, with a rag as a fuse — did not explode because heavy rain put its flame out. An employee at embassy contacted by AFP said she was not authorised to comment on the incident. The attack occurred in a tense security climate in Venezuela, heightened by protests against a new “Constituent Assembly” that is to start work today with sweeping powers. Spain has been especially critical of the new body, whose election was orchestrated by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. It and the rest of the European Union have said they will not recognise the assembly as legitimate. According to Venezuela’s prosecutors’ office, the two attackers threw several Molotov cocktails at the Spanish embassy, located in the chic inner-eastern district of Chacao. The district’s mayor, Ramon Muchacho, sent photos to AFP, one showing a soda bottle filled with what appeared to be gasoline, with red cloth stuffed into it. Another showed a black mark that could have come from a small explosion. Neither the prosecutors nor the mayor linked the attack to Venezuela’s degraded political situation.