Massive Power Outage Hits Venezuela for 12 Hours

Venezuela experienced a massive 12-hour power outage starting early Friday, affecting the capital Caracas and several other states. The government, led by President Nicolas Maduro, blamed 'sabotage' by opposition forces protesting alleged election fraud in the July 28 presidential election. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Communications Minister Freddy Nanez described the incident as a 'terrorist attack' on the national electrical system, but provided no evidence. Power began to be restored by Friday afternoon, and by Saturday morning, electricity had returned to almost the entire country. This outage revived memories of a similar event in 2019, which was also blamed on opposition sabotage. Experts, however, often attribute such blackouts to poor maintenance and underfunding of the power grid.