Venezuela claims 'sabotage' in widespread power outage

A widespread power outage struck Venezuela's capital, Caracas, and other parts of the country before dawn on Friday, the government's communication and information minister said, blaming sabotage by the opposition but without giving any evidence. 

"We are reporting that at approximately 4:40 a.m. (0840 GMT/UTC) today ... an electrical sabotage took place in Venezuela, a sabotage against the national electrical system, which has affected almost the entire national territory," Freddy Nanez told the state-run VTV channel. 

He said that all 24 states in the country had reported total or partial power failures. 

The allegations come in the aftermath of July 28's disputed presidential election and as the government threatens opposition leaders with legal action.

Frequent blackouts, if usually on smaller scale

Nanez gave no indication as to what alleged damage caused the blackout or evidence to implicate the opposition in his comments.

Power failures are commonplace, if not usually on such a large scale, in Venezuela. It's also standard practice for the government to blame them on sabotage it links to the opposition or international supporters. 

Nanez did so as recently as Tuesday when explaining a series of smaller power failures in several states. 

Observers argue that for many of these more localized and regular outages, the more likely explanation would be underfunding and poor maintenance of the power grid.

Reminiscent of major 2019 outage, also after disputed elections

The largest power blackout in recent years in Venezuela was in 2019, when the country suffered three national failures, some lasting as long as three days. 

Then, as now, the country was in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election where incumbent Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner amid cries of foul play from the opposition. 

Communications Minister Nanez also alluded to this while trying to blame the opposition on state television. 

"It is a new electrical sabotage," he said. "We know what it cost us in 2019, we know what it has cost us to recover the national electric system since then and today we are facing it with the proper protocols." 

Proper protocols appeared to be a reference to what Nanez called "anti-coup protocols" put in place since the disputed July 28 vote.

Third summons in court for opposition candidate Gonzalez 

Venezuelan authorities have declared and certified Maduro as the winner of the election, but without releasing complete results. 

The opposition has published what it says are tallies showing its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the vote.

Gonzalez was again due before prosecutors on Friday, his third summons after missing the previous two.He's accused of "forgery" and other crimes tied to the release of what the government says is fraudulent data.

Venezuelan authorities have said an arrest warrant will be issued if he again fails to present himself.

The opposition's candidate has not definitively said whether he will appear but has accused the country's attorney general of pursuing politically motivated charges and failing to guarantee due process. 

President Maduro has threatened to imprison both Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado — the opposition leader who was not allowed to run for the presidency in July's election. He blames them for the widespread protests in the election's aftermath.

Some of these demonstrations turned violent, with at least 27 people, including two soldiers, dying.

The attorney general opened an investigation against Gonzalez and Machado for "insurrection," after they appealed to the military to recognize the opposition as the vote winners.

msh/nm (AFP, Reuters)