Major power outage hits Venezuela’s capital, Maduro government blaming ‘sabotage’
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans woke up Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states.
The government of President Nicolas Maduro blamed the outage, which began around 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.”
Communications Minister Freddy Nanez said authorities were working to restore power. “No one will take away the peace and tranquility of the Venezuelan people,” he wrote in a message shared with reporters on Telegram.
In a voice message on Telegram, Nanez said all 24 states in Venezuela had been at least partially affected. He called the power outage a “desperate” attempt by Maduro’s opponents to violently overthrow the president.
“The entire national government has been mobilized to overcome this new aggression,” he said.
Venezuela in 2019, during a period of political unrest, suffered from regular power outages that the government has almost always blamed its opponents for the incidents, but energy experts have said they were the result of brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country’s hydroelectric infrastructure.
Many energy problems have been solved by the stabilization of the South American economy, the decrease in high inflation, and the reduction of shortages of imported goods through de facto dollarization.
Still following Last month’s disputed presidential electionAuthorities are quick to blame their opponents for even minor disruptions. That was the case Tuesday, when a power outage hit Caracas and several central states.
“It is a constant strategy of the opposition, of the enemies of this country, to influence the population,” said Diosdado Cabello, the new interior minister, considered the second most powerful man in the country, after the previous blackout.
Residents of the capital took Friday’s disruption in stride. Traffic was lighter than usual during rush hour and some complained of being unable to communicate with loved ones due to the lack of mobile phone coverage.
Alejandra Martinez, a 25-year-old saleswoman, said she noticed a power outage when a fan stopped working. “I thought the power would come back on and I went back to sleep,” she said as she tried to catch a bus to work as dawn broke over Caracas. “But when I woke up, I realized it was a blackout.”
Venezuela’s electricity grid relies heavily on the Guri Dam, a giant hydroelectric plant opened in the late 1960s. The power system is strained by poor maintenance, a lack of alternative energy supplies and a drain of engineering talent as some 8 million Venezuelan migrants have fled economic destitution in recent years.
