Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that a coup being plotted by military aviation officials had been dismantled and those involved detained.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro revealed Thursday that a coup being plotted by military aviation officials had been dismantled and those involved detained.

"We have broken up and foiled a coup attempt against democracy and the stability of our country," Maduro said at a ceremony in Caracas.

"This was an attempt to use a group of military aviation officers to provoke a violent event," he added.

The president said arrests had been carried out on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

One of those detained was "an aviation general called Hernandez, alias el Oso (the bear)," Maduro said, adding that he supposedly had plotted along with four other officers.

Maduro said the coup would have seen an attack by a Tucano aircraft against the presidential palace or another target and the plan was supposedly financed by the United States and directed "from Washington."

The president made the announcement a year after protests in Caracas against his government between February and June.