Electricity Restored to Caracas Other Cities

Date: 24 July 2019 - 21:12

News ID: ۶۸۵۰۷

CARACAS (AFP) -- Electricity has been restored in all of Caracas and several other regions of Venezuela after a major blackout, the government said.
The outage that began Monday afternoon triggered gridlock in the capital as traffic lights went dark. Sidewalks teemed with pedestrians walking home after the metro stopped running.
The government blamed sabotage, saying a hydroelectric plant that provides 80 percent of the country's power had been hit by an "electromagnetic attack."
A nationwide blackout in March lasted a full week, accentuating the woes of people in an oil-rich country that now has shortages of food and medicine and such basics as toilet paper and soap.
This time, the lights went out in a dozen hospitals, telephone service was knocked out and faucets ran dry, according to a consumer rights group called the Public Services Observatory.
There were no interruptions to flights at the Caracas airport but stores closed Monday night as the lack of electricity prevented the use of credit and debit cards. They are essential because cash is scarce in inflation-plagued Venezuela.
On Tuesday, the state run utility Corpoelec said power had been restored in the center and east of the country.
"We are moving toward total restoration of the service," it said on Twitter.
President Nicolas Maduro denounced what he said was a "criminal attack against tranquility and peace of the homeland," adding that the country's armed forces had been deployed for relief efforts.
The power outage in March affected all 23 states in Venezuela and lasted a week, paralyzing basic services such as the water supply and forcing the work day to be canceled and school classes to be suspended.
Hospital care was also affected by that incident and another one that came days later.
Opponents of Maduro said at the time that about 20 people died due to problems receiving medical treatment.
Maduro blamed "terrorists" for that near-nationwide blackout, saying they had attacked the Guri hydroelectric plant -- the same one that was allegedly targeted this time.
Another huge outage in April left large parts of the country, including Caracas, in darkness, although it lasted hours rather than days.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido said nine states were still without electricity Tuesday while seven others only had a partial restoration of services.
Venezuela has been mired in a political impasse since January when Guaido proclaimed himself acting president. The country has been in a deep recession for five years amid U.S. sanctions.