Venezuela | Electricity gradually returns after widespread outage

(Caracas) Power was gradually returning to Venezuela on Friday after a general power cut, attributed by the government to “sabotage” and an attempted coup, a month after the contested re-election of Nicolas Maduro.

Electricity, which was completely cut off for about ten hours, returned intermittently in parts of Caracas and the states of Tachira (southwest) and Merida (west), AFP noted. Reports on social networks reported normalization in other regions of the country, but areas remained without power.

“We are normalizing, regularizing, step by step with guarantees, with security,” Maduro said on evening television, without giving precise figures on the outages or the state of network recovery.

“It is an attack full of vengeance, of hatred, which comes from fascist currents […] claiming to be the political opposition,” he said, adding that he was convinced that it was organized from the “United States.”

“This is an attack on Guri,” a village (southeast) where the country’s largest hydroelectric power station is located, he said.

The power was cut off for unknown reasons around 5am local time. Communications Minister Freddy Nanez spoke on television about “sabotage of the national electricity system” that affected “the 24 states of the country”.

The outage comes as Venezuela is embroiled in a serious post-election crisis following the July 28 presidential election, with the opposition claiming victory over Nicolas Maduro.

The country regularly experiences localized power outages and load shedding, but rarely widespread blackouts. It was, however, traumatized by a five-day blackout in March 2019.

“Under control”

The government regularly attributes these incidents to “attacks” orchestrated by the United States and the opposition in order to overthrow it.

However, the opposition and many specialists believe that these recurring cuts are the result of poor management of the industrial sector, which has deteriorated with the economic crisis.

Venezuela has suffered an unprecedented 80% contraction in its GDP over the past decade, which the timid recovery of the last two years has not compensated for. Some seven million Venezuelans have fled the country.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, often considered one of the most powerful men in Venezuela, said the opposition had “not achieved their objectives” […] that the country is on fire a month after the election.”

“I thought it was a power cut like the ones that happen every day here,” laughs Elena Jimenez, a 66-year-old housewife from Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state.

Summons

On the political front, opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia ignored the third summons sent to him by the courts on Friday, according to state television VTV.

The prosecution had threatened to issue an arrest warrant against him if he failed to appear again.

The 75-year-old former ambassador has not appeared in public since July 30. On Sunday, he said he feared a justice system “without any guarantee of independence.”

He is being investigated for “usurpation of functions” and “incitement to disobey the law.”

After the announcement of Nicolas Maduro’s re-election, spontaneous demonstrations left 27 dead and 192 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources.

The socialist president, whose victory was validated by the Supreme Court, was declared the winner with 52% of the vote by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

The opposition claims that Mr Gonzalez Urrutia won the election with more than 60% of the vote.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday that he “does not accept Maduro’s victory or that of the opposition. The opposition says it won. He (Maduro) says he won, but there is no proof. We demand proof.”