MARACAIBO, Venezuela (AP) — Marin Mendez leaned a shoulder into his rusty Chevy Malibu, rolling it forward each time the line of cars inched closer to the pump. Waiting hours to fill up, he says, is the high cost he pays for gasoline that's nearly free in socialist Venezuela.

"You line up to get your pension, line up to buy food, line up to pump your gas," an exasperated Mendez said after 40 minutes of waiting in the sweltering heat in Maracaibo — ironically the center of the country's oil industry — and expecting to be there hours or days more. "I've had enough!"

Lines stretching a mile (kilometer) or more to fuel up have plagued this western region of Venezuela for years — despite the country's status as holder of the world's largest oil reserves. Now, shortages threaten to spread countrywide as supplies of petrol become even scarcer amid a raging struggle over political control of Venezuela.

The Trump administration hit Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA with sanctions in late January in a sweeping strategy aimed at forcing President Nicolas Maduro from power in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido.

Doomsday predictions immediately followed — mostly fueled by Maduro's opponents and U.S. officials — that Venezuela's domestic gasoline supplies would last no more than a week or so. That hasn't happened yet, but more misery is feared as expected shortages have economic implications far beyond longer gas lines, turning Venezuela's crisis to a catastrophe.

"Crucially, it will lead to more shortages of food and basic goods," said Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Venezuela analyst with the London-based consulting firm IHS Global Insight.

That's because the vast oil reserves that once made Venezuela Latin America's wealthiest country provide the primary source of the hard currency it needs to import food and other goods. Today, its basic infrastructure — roads, power grid, water lines and oil refineries — is crumbling. Food and medicine, nearly all of it imported, are scarce and expensive as Venezuela endures the world's highest inflation.

Critics blame Venezuela's collapse on the government's two decades of self-proclaimed "socialist revolution," which has been marred by corruption and mismanagement, first under the late Hugo Chavez and now under Maduro's rule.

The U.S. sanctions essentially cut PDVSA off from its Houston-based subsidiary Citgo, depriving it of $11 billion in hard currency from exports this year that U.S. officials say bankrolled Maduro's "dictatorship." U.S. officials have turned control of Citgo over to Guaido's interim government, essentially expropriating the company, a strategy Venezuela's socialist government employed for years by seizing private companies.

Opposition leaders bent on ousting Maduro say they recognize the U.S. crackdown on the oil sector will be painful for their people, but add that the measures are necessary to keep Maduro's government from further looting Venezuelan resources.

Meanwhile, a defiant Maduro says the economic war led by the White House is a precursor to a military invasion to oust him from power and seize Venezuela's vast oil wealth. Maduro tweeted a warning on Wednesday that nobody should be fooled by apparent gestures of assistance, alluding to tons of U.S. humanitarian aid he recently blocked from entering.

"The Venezuelan opposition and the U.S. government don't want to help the country," Maduro said. "Just the opposite. They crave our natural resources. They want to unleash 'The Oil War' to invade and dominate our homeland."

Despite years of economic decline leading to Venezuela's current crisis, residents enjoy some of the world's cheapest gasoline — filling up a tank for less than a penny. But gas is already hard to get in Maracaibo and other cities along the Colombian border, where smugglers sneak Venezuela's dirt-cheap fuel into the neighboring country, selling it at international prices for a quick profit.

Ixchel Castro, a Mexico City-based analyst at the Wood Mackenzie energy research firm, said Venezuela's domestic gasoline supply has been down by as much as 15 percent in recent years as the country's refineries and infrastructure fail — a trend that is expected to accelerate.

PDVSA provided 160,000 barrels a day for domestic use last year, but with the U.S. sanctions and ongoing infrastructure challenges, that supply can be expected to fall to 60,000 barrels a day, she said, meeting just 38 percent of the country's needs.

Exacerbating the problem are shortages of diluent, a critical product needed to thin Venezuela's tar-like heavy crude so it can be piped over 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the field to be turned into gasoline. Russia has stepped in, sending two tankers of the thinner, but these supplies will last just five to 10 days, said Russ Dallen, managing partner of Caracas Capital, a brokerage company.

"It's nothing," he said. "It's a drop in the bucket of what they need."

Gasoline won't completely dry up in Venezuela, which still has access to waning domestic production, as well as fuel in storage and shipments from India and European countries that aren't subject to sanctions. But the fuel quality will suffer and there will be shortages, Castro said.

These are already being felt in San Cristobal near the Colombian border, where 55-year-old mechanic Gerardo Marquez said he got in line one recent Monday afternoon. On Tuesday the gas truck didn't show up as promised, and on Wednesday he was still there after spending two nights with his car.

Relatives did bring him food, water and a pillow, and gave him a chance to get away for bathroom breaks, he said. But he barely napped. "We're all on guard so they don't rob us," he said.

In Maracaibo, once known as the Saudi Arabia of Venezuela as a center of the country's oil boom, residents have endured shortages for at least three years. Trucks to deliver the fuel are too few and daily power failures compound the problem, leaving gas pumps idle. Just two of Maracaibo's 150 gas stations have generators to provide gas during rampant blackouts.

Fed up with waiting in lines, the 62-year-old Marin said he plans to start hoarding gas at home, despite the danger the explosive fuel poses to his wife, children and grandchildren. He relies on his car for his part-time job ferrying paying customers to supplement his modest $6-a-month pension checks.

"My grandchildren don't know what it's like to eat a piece of meat or bit of chicken," he said.

In the capital, Caracas, residents brace for shortages like these to finally hit them. The metropolitan area of 7 million people has so far been immune to frustrating gas lines.

But an attendant at a PDVSA station sees them coming, recounting how a customer filled up his car then returned a few minutes later with an empty tank. He'd siphoned his tank to get around a government ban on filling up gas cans to crack down on smugglers.

"Most Venezuelans have no idea of the magnitude of what is coming," said Caracas taxi driver Jhaims Bastidas, waiting to fill up. "I imagine it'll go beyond gasoline shortages to food and medicine — even worse than we have it now."

Smith reported from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writer Clbyburn Saint John reported from San Cristobal, Venezuela.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An electrical outage has left much of Venezuela without power in what authorities are decrying as an act of “sabotage.”

Local media reported Thursday that nearly the entire nation is experiencing a blackout just as workers begin their commute home.

State-owned electricity operator CORPOELEC blamed the outage as part of a “power war” against the nation on Twitter.

The agency says the blackout stems from an attack on the Guri power plant and that officials are working to restore service.

Pro-government officials often blame outages involving Venezuela’s mismanaged and poorly maintained power grid on the opposition.

Outages have become a regular occurrence in Venezuela though Thursday’s outage appeared to be wider in reach than usual.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Much of Venezuela remained engulfed by darkness into early Friday amid one of the largest power outages in years, raising tensions in a country already on edge from ongoing political turmoil.

The blackout hit 22 of 23 states by some accounts. It struck the capital Caracas, which until now has been spared the worst of a collapse in the nation's grid, at the peak of rush hour.

Thousands of commuters flooded into the streets because subway service was stopped. A snarl of cars jammed the streets amid confusion generated by blackened stoplights. Others had to walk long distances to get home.

At the darkened maternity ward at the Avila Clinic in wealthy eastern Caracas, several mothers cried as nurses holding candles monitored the vital signs of premature babies in incubators after backup generators shut off.

Venezuela's socialist government blasted the outage as an "electrical war" directed by the United States. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said right-wing extremists intent on causing pandemonium in Venezuela and taking orders from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio were behind the blackout, although he offered no proof.

"A little bit of patience," Rodriguez urged on state television, saying service would be restored in a few hours. "If you're in your home, stay in your home. If you're in a protected space or at work, it's better for you to stay there."

But as night wore on in Caracas, patience was running thin.

Residents threw open their windows and banged pots and pans in the darkness. Some shouted out expletives at President Nicolas Maduro in a sign of mounting frustration. Normally hyperactive social media was eerily silent as much of the country was knocked offline.

By midnight Friday, power had yet to be restored in Caracas and many other areas.

The outage comes as Venezuela is in the throes of a political struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of congress who declared himself the nation's rightful president in January and is recognized by the United States and about 50 nations.

Guaido took to Twitter to blast Maduro for the outage.

"How do you tell a mom who needs to cook, an ill person who depends on a machine, a worker who should be laboring that we are in a powerful country without electricity?" he wrote, using the hashtag #SinLuz, meaning without light. "Venezuela is clear that the light will return with the end of usurpation."

Venezuela's electrical system was once the envy of Latin America but it has fallen into a state of disrepair after years of poor maintenance and mismanagement. High-ranking officials have been accused in U.S. court proceedings of looting government money earmarked for the electrical system.

While intermittent outages have become regular occurrences in Venezuela of late, rarely have so many states simultaneously been without power for such an extended period.

While authorities expressed concern about the sick and elderly, and a few people had to be rescued from elevators, some residents in Caracas expressed awe at the sight of stars hanging over the normally bustling city of 2 million.

The government keeps home power bills exceptionally low — just a couple dollars a month — relying heavily on subsidies from the Maduro administration, with is under increasing financial duress.

The nation is experiencing hyperinflation projected to reach a mind-boggling 10 million percent this year, is grappling with food and medical shortages and has lost about 10 percent of its population to migration in the past few years. Venezuela's economic woes are likely to increase as U.S. sanctions against its oil industry kick in.

State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on act of "sabotage" at the Guri Dam, one of the world's largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela's electrical grid. Rodriguez described it as a "cyber" attack intended to derail the whole system. He said electricity in Venezuela's eastern region had been restored within two hours.

"What's the intention?" he said. "To submit the Venezuelan people to various days without electricity to attack, to mistreat, so that vital areas would be without power."

Pro-government officials often blame power outages on Venezuela's opposition, accusing them of attacking power substations with Molotov cocktails, though they rarely provide any evidence.

Rubio, who has been driving the Trump administration's confrontational stance toward Maduro, seemed to relish Rodriguez's accusations that he was somehow to blame for the power crisis.

"My apologies to people of Venezuela," the Florida Republican said in a message on Twitter. "I must have pressed the wrong thing on the 'electronic attack' app I downloaded from Apple. My bad."</s>Described by the Venezuelan government as an act of “sabotage”, cities such as Caracas were struck by the power outage. BNO News reports the outage started in the late afternoon and had affected all parts of the country. The blackout is the latest fiasco to strike the nation, which has been badly affected by an ongoing row between Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition leader Juan Guaido.

AFP news agency say that many businesses have been forced to shut down. The organisation adds that the government have called it “sabotage”. The country is still in darkness and officials are unable to confirm exactly when residents should expect power to be restored.

Maduro claims the US were behind the incident. He said: “The electric war announced and directed by US imperialism against our people will be defeated.” Power is generated at the country’s Guri Dam base in the Bolívar State. The supply is controlled by firm Corpoelec, which said on it Twitter it was working to restore it.</s>
• A massive blackout has hit most of Venezuela, an anomaly even for a country that has frequent power shortages.
• President Nicolás Maduro blamed “American imperialism” for starting an “electricity war” with the Venezuelan people.
• Critics say the power grid is decaying because the government is not maintaining and funding it.

A massive blackout has left most of Venezuela in the dark, surprising even locals who have grown accustomed to food, medicine and power shortages.

The electricity went out in 22 out of 23 states on Thursday, and is still not working as of early Friday, The Associated Press reported.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro blamed the opposition without presenting evidence, as he commonly does in the case of a power outage.

Read more: Nicolas Maduro posted a 40-minute livestream about his plans for celebrating Carnaval as Venezuela continues to collapse

“We will defeat the electricity war American imperialism has announced and orchestrated against our people,” he said on Twitter.

Jorge Rodríguez, the communications minister, went on the state channel TeleSur to denounce the “sabotage” of a power generator at the Guri Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric stations in the world.

Critics say the government has let a once impressive power grid decay because of corruption, poor maintenance and under investment.

Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader who more than 50 countries now recognize as Venezuela’s rightful president, said Maduro must resign so the electricity system can be restored.

“We have water, we have petrol, we have gas. But unfortunately we have a usurper in Miraflores [the presidential palace],” he tweeted.

When the blackout hit on Thursday at the peak of rush hour, chaos ensued on the streets of the capital Caracas as thousands of commuters were forced to leave the subway, The AP reported. Generators also shut down at some hospitals where nurses had to monitor vitals with candles.

“The person responsible for this is named Nicolás Maduro,” Pedro Fernandez, a 44-year-old systems engineer, told Reuters. “This is just the tip of the iceberg given all the things we’re suffering.”

Read more: A timeline of the political crisis in Venezuela, which began with claims of election rigging and has the US calling for regime change

Venezuela is engulfed in a humanitarian and political crisis. As empty supermarkets and soaring crime drive millions of refugees abroad, Guaidó is trying to unseat Maduro.

Earlier this week, the opposition leader returned to Venezuela after a 10 day exile despite government threats to arrest him.

He is currently trying to galvanize support among state employees, and is planning a public sector strike with union leaders.</s>Caracas, Venezuela – Much of Venezuela remained engulfed by darkness into early Friday amid one of the largest power outages in years, raising tensions in a country already on edge from ongoing political turmoil.

The blackout hit 22 of 23 states by some accounts. It struck the capital Caracas, which until now has been spared the worst of a collapse in the nation’s grid, at the peak of rush hour.

Thousands of commuters flooded into the streets because subway service was stopped. A snarl of cars jammed the streets amid confusion generated by blackened stoplights. Others had to walk long distances to get home.

At the darkened maternity ward at the Avila Clinic in wealthy eastern Caracas, several mothers cried as nurses holding candles monitored the vital signs of premature babies in incubators after backup generators shut off.

Venezuela’s socialist government blasted the outage as an “electrical war” directed by the United States. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said right-wing extremists intent on causing pandemonium in Venezuela and taking orders from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio were behind the blackout, although he offered no proof.

“A little bit of patience,” Rodriguez urged on state television, saying service would be restored in a few hours. “If you’re in your home, stay in your home. If you’re in a protected space or at work, it’s better for you to stay there.”

But as night wore on in Caracas, patience was running thin.

Residents threw open their windows and banged pots and pans in the darkness. Some shouted out expletives at President Nicolas Maduro in a sign of mounting frustration. Normally hyperactive social media was eerily silent as much of the country was knocked offline.

By midnight Friday, power had yet to be restored in Caracas and many other areas.

The outage comes as Venezuela is in the throes of a political struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of congress who declared himself the nation’s rightful president in January and is recognized by the United States and about 50 nations.

Guaido took to Twitter to blast Maduro for the outage.

“How do you tell a mom who needs to cook, an ill person who depends on a machine, a worker who should be laboring that we are in a powerful country without electricity?” he wrote, using the hashtag #SinLuz, meaning without light. “Venezuela is clear that the light will return with the end of usurpation.”

Venezuela’s electrical system was once the envy of Latin America but it has fallen into a state of disrepair after years of poor maintenance and mismanagement. High-ranking officials have been accused in U.S. court proceedings of looting government money earmarked for the electrical system.

While intermittent outages have become regular occurrences in Venezuela of late, rarely have so many states simultaneously been without power for such an extended period.

While authorities expressed concern about the sick and elderly, and a few people had to be rescued from elevators, some residents in Caracas expressed awe at the sight of stars hanging over the normally bustling city of 2 million.

The government keeps home power bills exceptionally low – just a couple dollars a month – relying heavily on subsidies from the Maduro administration, with is under increasing financial duress.

The nation is experiencing hyperinflation projected to reach a mind-boggling 10 million percent this year, is grappling with food and medical shortages and has lost about 10 percent of its population to migration in the past few years. Venezuela’s economic woes are likely to increase as U.S. sanctions against its oil industry kick in.

State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on act of “sabotage” at the Guri Dam, one of the world’s largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela’s electrical grid. Rodriguez described it as a “cyber” attack intended to derail the whole system. He said electricity in Venezuela’s eastern region had been restored within two hours.

“What’s the intention?” he said. “To submit the Venezuelan people to various days without electricity to attack, to mistreat, so that vital areas would be without power.”

Pro-government officials often blame power outages on Venezuela’s opposition, accusing them of attacking power substations with Molotov cocktails, though they rarely provide any evidence.

Rubio, who has been driving the Trump administration’s confrontational stance toward Maduro, seemed to relish Rodriguez’s accusations that he was somehow to blame for the power crisis.

“My apologies to people of Venezuela,” the Florida Republican said in a message on Twitter. “I must have pressed the wrong thing on the ‘electronic attack’ app I downloaded from Apple. My bad.”</s>Blackout In Venezuela Leaves Its Leaders Casting Blame In The Dark

A massive power outage has swept across Venezuela, leaving its two leaders at odds over who is to blame for plunging the country into darkness at a time of deep political unrest.

The outage began Thursday evening at rush hour, bringing the subway system in Caracas to a halt. Thousands of commuters returned home on foot, their walks lit only by mobile phones and the stars.

President Nicolás Maduro was quick to blame the "electricity war" on the United States, which has supported Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaidó after he declared himself interim president in January and received endorsements from dozens of countries.

"The electricity war declared and directed by U.S. imperialism against our people will be defeated," Maduro said. "Nothing and nobody will vanquish the people of Bolívar and Chávez."

Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodríguez described the outage as an attack on Venezuela's electric system — "a criminal action" driven by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken critic of Maduro.

Guaidó said that 22 states were without electricity for hours, breaking a record for Caracas.

"Chaos, concern and indignation," he said.

"This blackout is evidence of the usurper's inefficiency," Guaidó said, referring to Maduro. "The recovery of the electric sector and the country comes by stopping the usurpation."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed Guaidó's stance, faulting Maduro's regime for the energy shortage. "The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA," he said. "It's not because of Colombia. It's not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime's incompetence."

He added, "No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro."

Pompeo's remark follows a humanitarian operation that went awry in February. Truckloads of food and medicine were turned away at the border and Maduro's government celebrated it as a victory against regime change.

Over the years, food and medicine shortages have sent millions of citizens fleeing for a better life. Hyperinflation is estimated to hit 10 million percent in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund, and sanctions imposed by the Trump administration are likely to increase the country's economic plight.

Electricity shortages are not uncommon in the once rich country. Despite having vast oil reserves, the government exports its oil and Venezuelans rely on hydropower for their energy. Years of scant investment in hydroelectric infrastructure, combined with drought, have crippled the energy grid.

A decade after the nationalization of the energy sector in 2007, the government started switching off the power grid in cities and towns across the country. Because of the rolling blackouts, Venezuelans have seen their food decompose, their appliances ruined and even their health care suffer, with doctors saying they sometimes perform surgeries under the light of mobile phones. Last year, one outage resulted in the deaths of three people, including a newborn.

On Thursday, nurses at a wealthy Caracas health clinic held candles to monitor the vital signs of premature babies because backup generators had shut off, The Associated Press reported. Maduro ordered schools, businesses and government entities to shutter while crews tried to restore power.

Rubio reminded his followers on Twitter that Maduro's regime has gone so far as to blame iguanas for its electrical woes. And he hit back at Communications Minister Jorge Rodríguez, who accused him of fomenting the massive outage."My apologies to people of Venezuela," Rubio said. "I must have pressed the wrong thing on the 'electronic attack' app I downloaded from Apple. My bad."</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A power outage left much of Venezuela in the dark early Thursday evening in what appeared to be one of the largest blackouts yet in a country where power failures have become increasingly common.

Crowds of commuters in capital city Caracas were walking home after metro service ground to a halt and traffic snarled as cars struggled to navigate intersections where stoplights were out.

State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on an “attack” on the Guri Dam, one of the world’s largest hydroelectric projects and the cornerstone of Venezuela’s electrical grid.

“We’ve been targeted again in the power war,” Maj. Gen. Luis Motta, President Nicolas Maduro’s minister of electrical power, said in remarks aired on state television.

Pro-government officials frequently blame outages on Venezuela’s opposition, accusing them of attacking power substations with Molotov cocktails, though rarely providing evidence.

Motta did not indicate how much of the nation is engulfed in the outage, though local media reported that nearly all of Venezuela was experiencing a blackout. Motto said it would take “approximately three hours” for service to be restored, though patience was already running thin Thursday evening.

In one Caracas neighborhood, residents threw up their windows and began banging on pot and pans in a sign of protest while others shouted out expletives and Maduro’s name.

The outage comes as Venezuela is in the throes of a power struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by about 50 nations as Venezuela’s rightful president. The opposition is blaming Maduro for the country’s soaring hyperinflation, food and medical shortages, while the embattled leader accuses Guaido of conspiring with the Trump administration to overthrow him from power.

Venezuela’s electrical system was once the envy of Latin America but it has fallen into a state of disrepair amidst years of poor maintenance and mismanagement. High-ranking officials have been accused in U.S. court proceedings of looting investments earmarked for the electrical system.

The government keeps home power bills exceptionally low - just a couple dollars a month - relying heavily on subsidies.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Venezuelan government on Wednesday ordered the German ambassador to leave the country after he expressed support for Juan Guaido, escalating a diplomatic standoff with a group of about 50 nations that recognize the opposition leader as the country's interim president.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted a statement saying Ambassador Daniel Kriener interfered in Venezuela's internal affairs and allied himself with "extremist sectors" of the opposition.

Venezuela considers it unacceptable that a foreign diplomat would take on "a public role more appropriate to that of a political leader," the government statement said. It gave Kriener 48 hours to leave the country.

Kriener and some other diplomats greeted Guaido when he returned to Venezuela on Monday and vowed to intensify his campaign to topple the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

At the country's main airport, Kriener spoke to journalists and said he hoped the leader of the National Assembly would be safe. There were concerns that the opposition leader might face detention, but Maduro's government did not move against him.

After the expulsion order, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he had decided to recall Kriener to Berlin for consultations.

"This is an incomprehensible decision that aggravates the situation and does not contribute to de-escalation," Maas said in a statement. "Our, Europe's, support for Juan Guaido is unbroken. Ambassador Kriener is doing excellent work in Caracas, including in recent days."

In a speech at the National Assembly, Guaido condemned the expulsion of the ambassador.

"They're threatening an important European country that is providing humanitarian help to Venezuela," he said.

Guaido also said Maduro had effectively been ignoring him since his return to Venezuela in hopes that his political momentum will fade. On Tuesday, Maduro belittled his opponents as "opportunists and cowards," but did not mention Guaido by name.

The adversaries have announced rival demonstrations on Saturday as they seek to motivate supporters.

A U.S. journalist working in Venezuela, meanwhile, was taken away by security forces from his Caracas apartment early Wednesday, according to witnesses and colleagues. Executives at a Miami TV station said hours later that freelance journalist Cody Weddle, who reported for the station, had been freed and taken to the airport for a flight to the U.S.

The U.S. State Department said earlier that it was deeply concerned about the reported detention of a U.S. journalist. Venezuelan officials did not comment on the case.

Venezuela broke off diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia after Maduro's security forces blocked a Feb. 23 attempt by Guaido and allies to bring humanitarian aid into Venezuela from Colombia and Brazil. He also broke diplomatic relations with the United States after it recognized Guaido as interim president in late January, initially giving American diplomats 72 hours to leave the country. The Trump administration refused to obey Maduro's order.

The U.S., Germany and some 50 other countries consider Maduro's re-election invalid and have urged him to step aside so the country can prepare for elections. Maduro says he is the target of a U.S.-backed coup plot.

The U.S. is pursuing new diplomatic and economic initiatives to support Guaido's bid for a transitional government in Venezuela, National Security Adviser John Bolton said Wednesday.

"The United States is putting foreign financial institutions on notice that they will face sanctions for being involved in facilitating illegitimate transactions that benefit Nicolas Maduro and his corrupt network," Bolton said in a statement.

The Trump administration has imposed oil sanctions in Venezuela as well as sanctions on high-ranking members of the Venezuelan security forces and other senior officials. The U.S. visas of other Venezuelan officials and their relatives have been revoked.

Associated Press writers Scott Smith and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington contributed to this report.</s>At least 18 of 23 states reportedly affected by blackout authorities blamed on anti-government saboteurs

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Venezuela has been hit by a vast power cut, with at least 18 of its 23 states reportedly affected by a blackout authorities blamed on anti-government saboteurs.

Commuters in the country’s crumbling capital, Caracas, were forced to walk home from work after the metro service was paralyzed by the outage, while the international airport was reportedly plunged into darkness.

Millions of citizens from the western state of Zulia to Amazonas in the far south were also reported to have been affected.

The Venezuelan news website El Pitazo reported that the outage appeared to be the result of a failure at the Simón Bolívar hydroelectric plant in the southern state of Bolívar.

Members of Nicolás Maduro’s crisis-stricken government claimed opposition wreckers had targeted the plant, which is also known as Guri.

“The black out has been caused by sabotage at Guri,” tweeted the official account of the television program of Maduro’s second-in-command, Diosdado Cabello.

“This is not an attack on the government. It is an attack on the people,” Venezuela’s electricity minister, Luis Motta Domínguez, told reporters.

Maduro blamed “United States imperialism” for the problem and vowed it would be defeated. “Nothing and nobody will defeat the people of Bolívar and Chávez,” he tweeted.

Venezuela’s state-run power company, Corpoelec, claimed the blackout was “part of the electricity war against the state” and said it was working to restore supply.

'A slow-motion catastrophe': on the road in Venezuela, 20 years after Chávez's rise Read more

Amid a crippling economic crisis, shortages of water and power – which experts blame on mismanagement, corruption and poor maintenance – are now common. Even upmarket restaurants and hotels in Caracas are regularly deprived of both.

Even so, Thursday’s power outage appeared to be unusually severe even by Venezuelan standards.

“The international airport … is almost totally without electricity at this moment,” the opposition politician, Jony Rahal, informed his Twitter followers in a video.

“What can we say? We’re tired of this government,” one frustrated commuter told the Venezuelan TV channel NTN24.

The blackout was so severe that one Venezuelan journalist asked his Twitter followers to report if they had electricity, not if they did not.

The United States senator Marco Rubio – who has thrown his weight behind efforts to unseat Maduro and replace him with opposition leader Juan Guaidó – described the blackout as further proof that Venezuela’s strongman ruler was on his way out.
A major power blackout leaves most of Venezuela without electricity, including the capital Caracas. At least 18 of Venezuela's 23 states have reported blackouts. Venezuelan news website El Pitazo blames failures at Simón Bolívar hydroelectric plant; state TV blames anti-government saboteurs.