A major power outage plunged most of Venezuela into darkness on Thursday afternoon — with embattled President Nicolas Maduro and his administration blaming it on “sabotage.” “We have again been victims of a power war,” said Electricity Minister Luis Motta on state television. “This time, we have been attacked on the power generation and transmission side from Bolivar state, specifically the Guri, the backbone of power.” At least 15 of the 23 states in Venezuela were said to have been affected by the blackout — with social media users from the Andes to the Caribbean coast reporting outages. The capital city of Caracas also went dark Thursday and much of its metro system was shut down as a result. Residents reportedly blamed the incident on their socialist leader, and not sabotage. “The person responsible for this is named Nicolas Maduro,” said Pedro Fernandez, a 44-year-old systems engineer from the city’s Altamira neighborhood, in an interview with Reuters. Blackouts and food shortages have become commonplace in Venezuela as the country continues to deal with its hyperinflation crisis. Some cities have been known to lose power on a daily basis. “This is just the tip of the iceberg given all the things we’re suffering,” Fernandez said of Thursday’s outage. Venezuelan officials claimed it would take “approximately three hours” for service to be restored. With Post wires<doc-sep>Most of Venezuela was plunged into darkness Thursday evening, as a result of a massive power outage. The blackout was one of the largest to occur in the beleaguered nation, where electricity shortages are already common. The power outage began in the early evening, just as commuters were leaving work, leading to chaos on the streets of Caracas. Subway services were interrupted, flooding the streets with people. That excacerbated traffic jams caused by inoperable stoplights. As night fell, frustrated citizens across the city took to their windows to bang pots and pans in protest. Internet and telephone services were also wiped out, leaving residents with only cellphone data service. Read more: Germany slams Nicolas Maduro's Venezuela over ambassador expulsion The country's Guri Dam, the backbone of Venezuela's electrical grid, is said to be where the failure originated. Critics of acting President Nicolas Maduro's regime have said that mismanagement and a lack of investment is to blame for chronic grid problems. Self-declared interim President Juan Guaido tweeted at 11 p.m. local time that 22 Venezuelan states and the capital of Caracas had been without power for six hours. "Chaos, concern and indignation. This blackout demonstrates the inefficiency of the usurper," he wrote, referencing Maduro. Maduro blames US But Venezuela's government has said that international and political adversaries are the ones responsible for power failures. "The war on electricity, already announced and directed by US imperialism against our people, will be defeated," Maduro wrote on Twitter. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez denounced a "sabotage" of "criminal intent" from "those who persist in their intention to hurt the Venezuelan people." The minister said the blackout was part of a plan to leave Venezuela without power for several days, but that after "heroic efforts," the government was able to restore electricity to the eastern part of the country. "We tell Marco Rubio, that you have failed again," Rodriguez said, accusing the US Senator of leading efforts to intervene in Venezuela. Read more: Venezuela's health care crisis: Hospitals have 'nothing left' US denounces regime 'incompetence' Rubio mocked the accusation on his Twitter account, calling Rodriguez "the Baghdad Bob of Caracas," a reference to Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, former information minister of Iraq and a top figure in Sadam Hussein's regime. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shot back at the accusation of US involvement in the blackout, tweeting that "power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime's incompetence." The massive power outage comes as Venezuela is already suffering from hyperinflation, projected to reach 10 million percent this year, and is grappling with food and medical shortages. jcg/rt (EFE, AFP, AP) Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.<doc-sep>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. READ MORE: What’s happening in Venezuela? 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.” WATCH: How Guaido plans to increase pressure on Maduro to resign 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.”<doc-sep>
Venezuela plunged into darkness Thursday evening following one of the largest power outages in years, spreading chaos in an already disrupted country facing political turmoil. The blackout began as most commuters were leaving work for home, hitting 22 out of 23 Venezuelan states, including the capital Caracas that until now managed to avoid the consequences of collapsing infrastructure and frequent outages. Thousands of commuters had to scramble to find a way back home as subway service stopped operating, while roads came to a standstill due to confusion over blackened stoplights. The blackout forced hospital nurses to monitor patients, including premature babies in incubators, while holding candles. COLOMBIA STOPS BID BY EXILED SOLDIERS TO FORCEFULLY DELIVER AID TO VENEZUELA Venezuela's disputed president Nicolas Maduro, meanwhile, blamed the blackout as an “electrical war” perpetrated by the United States without providing any proof, the latest sign of a dictator who’s losing the grip over the country. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez echoed Maduro and said right-wing extremists are causing mayhem in the country at the behest of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a claim mocked by the senator on Twitter. “My apologies to people of Venezuela,” he wrote in a tweet. “I must have pressed the wrong thing on the ‘electronic attack’ app I downloaded from Apple. My bad.” Rodriguez urged people to be patient and promised to restore power within the hours of the blackout. Yet the blackout continued into early Friday morning, with Venezuelans opening their windows and banging pots and pans in the dark as a protest against the government, while some also cursed at Maduro. The outage comes amid political turmoil in Venezuela, with Maduro facing a challenge for legitimacy from opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of congress who was recognized as the legitimate leader of the country by the U.S. and about 50 countries around the world. HUNDREDS OF VENEZUELA'S MILITARY DEFECT IN FOUR DAYS AS COUNTRY SPIRALS INTO FURTHER CHAOS Guaido attacked the socialist regime for the blackout on social media. “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.” The shortage of goods and services has become a daily reality for Venezuelans, with many lacking food and basic medical supplies due to the failing socialist economy that made the country’s currency worthless. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The electrical system – once the envy of Latin America – has suffered years of mismanagement that was exacerbated amid dwindling financial resources that made it difficult for the government to continue subsidize the people’s electricity bills. The Associated Press contributed to this report.