A massive blackout early Friday morning left most of Venezuela in darkness, which Communications Minister Freddy \u00d1\u00e1\u00f1ez attributed to \u201csabotage\u201d of the national grid.<\/p>\n
Venezuela has experienced frequent power outages, which President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government regularly blames on alleged conspiracies to topple him.<\/p>\n
\u00d1\u00e1\u00f1ez reported that at around 4:40 am (0840 GMT) on Friday, August 30, an electrical sabotage occurred, impacting nearly the entire country.<\/p>\n
“All 24 states are reporting total or partial loss of electricity supply,” \u00d1\u00e1\u00f1ez said on state-run VTV.<\/p>\n
The worst nationwide blackout in Venezuela\u2019s recent history occurred in March 2019 and lasted several days.<\/p>\n
Western regions such as T\u00e1chira and Zulia, once centers of the oil industry, endure daily power outages.<\/p>\n
The Maduro government has accused the United States and the political opposition of orchestrating these blackouts. <\/p>\n
However, opposition leaders and experts point to corruption, lack of investment, and insufficient expertise as the true causes of the outages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a new electrical sabotage,\u201d \u00d1\u00e1\u00f1ez declared, noting that the government has implemented “anti-coup protocols” in response to the blackout, referencing the disputed July 28 election.<\/p>\n
Maduro was declared the winner of that election, but the government-aligned National Electoral Council (CNE) has withheld detailed data to verify the results.<\/p>\n
The opposition claims its candidate, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, won by a landslide and has released polling station-level data to support their claim.<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, who faces charges of \u201cusurpation of functions\u201d and \u201cforgery\u201d for releasing electoral data, was scheduled to appear before prosecutors on Friday. This would have been his third summons after missing the previous two.<\/p>\n
Authorities have warned that failure to appear could result in an arrest warrant, but it is unclear if the proceedings will continue after the blackout.<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia has accused Attorney General Tarek William Saab of pursuing politically motivated charges without ensuring \u201cguarantees of independence and due process.\u201d <\/p>\n
Maduro has previously threatened to jail both Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia and opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, blaming them for post-election protests and violence that have left at least 27 people dead, including two military personnel, nearly 200 injured, and 2,400 arrested.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A massive blackout early Friday morning left most of Venezuela in darkness, which Communications Minister Freddy \u00d1\u00e1\u00f1ez attributed to \u201csabotage\u201d of the national grid. Venezuela has experienced frequent power outages, which President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government regularly blames on alleged conspiracies to topple him. \u00d1\u00e1\u00f1ez reported that at around 4:40 am (0840 GMT) on Friday, August […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[323],"tags":[686,687],"class_list":["post-144398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-power-outage","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"\n