2024-08-31 13:59:32
A power outage early Friday left Venezuela in the dark, including the capital, Caracas, the government said, blaming the failure on “sabotage” of the system by the opposition amid its allegations of electoral fraud.
The blackout was reported at 4:40 a.m. local time (8:40 a.m. GMT) and affected “totally or partially” the 24 states of this country, where power outages are frequent.
“All services are being checked, they are being reviewed,” said the powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello to the state channel VTV. “The network is already starting to be energized and some sectors here in Caracas are starting to receive electricity.”
“It is a process that is happening little by little, but it is a process that is done with the certainty of what is being done so as not to make mistakes,” he said.
There was electricity in the huge slum of Petare in eastern Caracas, but not in the centre, where state institutions operate, AFP found. In cities such as Mérida and San Cristóbal in the Venezuelan Andes (west), power was partially restored.
Blackouts have been frequent in Venezuela for a decade, especially in the provinces. The government always attributes them to attempts by the opposition to destabilize the power grid. But experts dismiss this argument and link them to lack of investment, incompetence and corruption.
“We woke up to the blackout,” Carlos Peña, 39, owner of a small chicken shop in downtown Caracas, told AFP, with everything in the dark and the refrigerator not working.
“We live nearby, that’s why we came… to see if we can sell everything so it doesn’t get lost.”
– “Tranquillity” –
The drop comes one month before the elections in which President Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed re-elected for a third consecutive six-year term, until 2031.
The opposition led by María Corina Machado claims that Edmundo González Urrutia won the elections and that it has the evidence to prove it. The accusation of fraud is seen by Chavismo as part of a plot against Maduro.
During the campaign, in fact, they denounced alleged plans to affect the vulnerable electrical system.
“They did not achieve their goals as they (the opposition) had hoped,” the minister continued, “that the country would be on fire a month after the elections. On the contrary, the country is completely calm, everything is working here.”
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said that “everything is under control.” “There has not been any situation worth mentioning anywhere in the country,” he said. “The Bolivarian National Armed Forces will be acting with all public security agencies (…) to deal with any situation.”
The metro was interrupted in Caracas and traffic was limited although there was movement of people, some standing outside office buildings.
“Mentally, we are used to these things,” said Leticia Quiroga, a 30-year-old civil servant. “We are waiting for instructions to be given to see what we can do.”
– Summons to opposition candidate –
Edmundo González, 75, was due to appear before the prosecutor’s office on Friday, which has opened a criminal investigation against him.
This is the third summons, after ignoring the previous ones. A new absence of the opposition leader, who has not appeared in public since shortly after the elections, would lead to the issuance of an arrest warrant. It is not clear how the procedure will go in the midst of the national blackout.
The opposition published on a website copies of more than 80% of the voting records that show González Urrutia as the winner. This initiative is precisely the core of the complaint: “Usurpation of functions” and “forgery of public documents” by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which did not publish the details of the counting of votes table by table as required by law.
These crimes theoretically carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Legal experts have described the procedure as irregular and the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) coalition has denounced “political persecution.”
Maduro has called for González and Machado to be imprisoned. He also holds them responsible for acts of violence in the post-election protests, which left 27 dead – including two soldiers -, almost 200 injured and more than 2,400 detained, including minors.
© Agence France-Presse
