Caracas, Oct 29 (IANS) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has slammed an attack on the oil-producing nation’s Amuay refinery complex located in Falcon state.
“Yesterday it (the refinery) was attacked with a powerful long-range weapon, which we are investigating to determine of what type,” Xinhua news agency quoted Maduro as saying at a press conference at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas on Wednesday.
“They wanted to cause a total explosion at the Amuay refinery,” he said, adding that the attack at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday toppled “a tower with a level of thickness in its steel superior to that of a war tank”.
The complex, according to Maduro, is “one of the most important refineries in Venezuela and Latin America”.
Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami was in Falcon to assess the damage, he said.
The attack comes more than a month after the President had claimed that a “US spy” was captured near the Amuay and Cardon refineries with large amounts of cash and weapons.
Without giving further details, Maduro had said the man was “serving as a marine on CIA bases in Iraq”.
–IANS
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