Major power outage hits Venezuela's capital, with Maduro government blaming 'sabotage'

abcnews.go.com:

Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states.

President Nicolas Maduro's government blamed the outage, which it said began about 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.”

Freddy Nanez, the communications minister, said officials were working to restore power. “Nobody will take away our peace and tranquility of the Venezuelan people,” he wrote in a message shared with journalists on Telegram.

Nanez said in a voice message on Telegram that all 24 of Venezuela’s states had been at least partially impacted. He characterized the outage as a “desperate” attempt by Maduro’s opponents to violently oust the president.

“The entire national government has been activated to overcome this new aggression,” he said.

Venezuela in 2019, during a period of political unrest, suffered from regular power outages that the government almost always blamed on its opponents, but that energy experts said were the result of brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country's hydroelectric infrastructure.

Many of the energy problems have subsided as the South American nation's economy has stabilized, high inflation has eased and a de facto dollarization has reduced shortages of imported goods.

Still, following last month's contested presidential election, officials are quick to blame opponents for even minor disruptions. That was the case on Tuesday, when a brownout affected Caracas and several central states.

“This is a constant strategy of the opposition, the enemies of this country, to impact the population,” Diosdado Cabello, the newly appointed interior