Caracas blames sabotage as lights go out across Venezuela

The lights went out across much of Venezuela, reviving fears of the blackouts that plunged the country into chaos a few months ago as the government once again accused opponents of sabotaging the nation’s hydroelectric power system.

The power in the capital went out after 4pm (8pm GMT) on Monday and immediately backed up traffic as traffic lights and the subway stopped working during rush hour. As night fell in Caracas, many were wondering how long they would be left in the dark. “This is horrible, a disaster,” Reni Blanco, a 48-yearold teacher, said as she joined a crush of people who flooded into the streets of the capital trying to make it home before nightfall.

Almost three hours into the blackout authorities broke their silence and blamed an “electromagnetic attack” on a series of dams located in southern Venezuela – the same culprit it attributed an almost week-long outage in March that left millions of Venezuelans without water or the ability to communicate with loved ones.

Communications minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a statement read on state TV: “Those who’ve systematically attacked the noble people of Venezuela in all kinds of ways will once again be confronted with the mettle and courage that we, the children of our liberator Simon Bolivar, have demonstrated in the face of difficulties,”

Mr Rodiguez said authorities were working to restore electricity as quickly as possible. He said security forces had been deployed and contingency plans activated to guarantee basic medical services and keep streets safe.

Nineteen of 24 Venezuelan states were affected. Netblocks, a group monitoring internet activity, said network data showed most of Venezuela was knocked offline with national connectivity at just 6 per cent after the latest cuts.

Normally non-stop state TV – a key way for the government to keep people informed – was also off the air for a while, adding to frustrations.

President Nicolas Maduro blamed the March outage on a Us-sponsored attack against the nation’s biggest hydroelectric dam. More recently, as power service in the politically turbulent capital has improved amid widespread rationing in the interior, officials have even taken to downplaying the outages as similar to a nationwide blackout in Argentina.

But his opponents said the outage laid bare years of under-investment in the nation’s grid by corrupt officials.