CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: PROF. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

World / Americas

Electric power returns to part, but not all, of Venezuela

Published: 10 Mar 2019 - 06:05 pm | Last Updated: 25 Nov 2021 - 03:29 am
Car lights are seen on one of the main roads of the city during the second day of a blackout in Caracas, Venezuela March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Car lights are seen on one of the main roads of the city during the second day of a blackout in Caracas, Venezuela March 9, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

AP

CARACAS, Venezuela: Power has returned to some parts of Venezuela after several days of the country's worst blackouts, but many areas remain without electricity and communications.

The massive outages have compounded the economic and political crisis in Venezuela, where the government and opposition accuse each other of being responsible for the infrastructure breakdown.

President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday tweeted that "multiple cyberattacks" caused the blackouts and disrupted efforts to fix the national grid. He says he hopes power can be restored in coming hours.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido and his ally, the United States, say Maduro's allegations that they sabotaged the power system are absurd. They say government corruption and mismanagement caused the decay of Venezuela's infrastructure over many years.

Venezuela is already struggling with hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.