Venezuela Faces Widespread Blackouts Amidst Sabotage Allegations

Venezuela's capital Caracas, along with 13 other regions, experienced a significant power outage on Friday. The communication and information ministry attributed the outage to sabotage. Freddy Nanez, the minister, claimed the electrical cabinet team is working to restore the service. Previous outages in Venezuela have been similarly attributed to sabotage.

Venezuela's capital city Caracas and other regions of the country were plunged into darkness early Friday due to a power outage, as confirmed by the communication and information ministry.

The blackout affected at least 13 regions, including Carabobo and Aragua, according to social media posts and Reuters staff. "We have been victims, once again, of electrical sabotage," stated Freddy Nanez, the minister of communication and information, without providing further details.

Nanez noted that the electrical cabinet team is diligently working to restore power. Power outages are a common occurrence in Venezuela, though they tend to be more localized. Smaller blackouts earlier in the week, also attributed to sabotage by Nanez, had impacted several states. The most significant recent outage was in 2019, when Venezuela experienced three nationwide blackouts, lasting up to three days, attributed to attacks on the power network by saboteurs and opposition figures.

Several videos circulated on social media on Friday, depicting cities in complete darkness. Reuters has yet to verify the authenticity of these videos.

(With inputs from agencies.)