Venezuelan minister blames power outages on terrorist attack

Several states in Venezuela experienced power outages on Sunday, following an explosion at a substation located in Aragua state, Sputnik reported.

Interior Minister and National Guard Commander General Nestor Reverol said on Sunday that Venezuela had suffered from an attack on the National Electric System as a part of a larger “sabotage plan” against the country.

VTV stressed that the minister was implying a “terrorist attack” against Venezuela.

The Socialist cabinet minister said that the purported attack hit a transformer at the Aragua substation, in Jose Angel Lamas municipality, causing an explosion. As a result, a number of states, including Zulia, Táchira, Nueva Esparta, Merida and Falcon, have suffered from power outages.

According to Reverol, the power supply has now been restored in the Capital Region and officials were now working on repairing damage in other regions. He noted that firefighters had acted swiftly in putting out the fire at the Aragua substation.

In October of last year, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro argued that the country’s Amuay Refinery had suffered from a “terrorist attack” carried out by a “large and powerful” weapon without providing any further details.

Maduro and the country’s officials have repeatedly accused the United States in the past of “sabotaging” Venezuela’s infrastructure and causing power shortages and starvation. In March 2019, they blamed “American imperialism” for an outage at the Guri Dam hydroelectric station.

Over a year later, Venezuela’s chief prosecutor accused an American citizen of planning to sabotage oil refineries and electrical services in the country – just shortly before the Amuay incident.

The United States has contested Nicolas Maduro's presidency since the 2019 election, recognizing the then-head of Venezuela’s National Assembly Juan Guaido as the country’s self-proclaimed interim president.

As the US pressed for the power change in Venezuela, it has been expanding sanctions against the country for the last 15 years “in response to the increasing authoritarianism of President Nicolas Maduro”.

RHM/Sputnik