The authorities face this situation with an “anti-coup plan” that they have been activated since before the presidential elections of July 28.
The Venezuelan government accused the opposition as a grouped in what it calls the “extreme right” of “electric sabotage” that, according to the authorities, was the cause of the blackout that the Caribbean country has faced this Friday since 4:50 local time.
“The far right (…) has tried a desperate measure, a blind measure, a contussed measure that goes nowhere to steal peace from Venezuelans,” said the Minister of Communication, Freddy Eáñez, in a video he shared on Telegram, without showing evidence.
He assured that “it is part of the coup plan” that “the leader of the largest opposition coalition – the Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) – Edmundo González Urrutia, and his biggest valedora, María Corina Machado, whose political disqualification the minister hopes to remain for “the rest of the days.”
He reiterated that this is a “new sabotage” that “has affected almost the entire national territory,” since they have received, from Caracas and the 23 states, reports of the fall in electricity supply in “total or partial terms.”
He indicated that the authorities face this situation with an “anti-coup plan” that they have been activated since before the presidential elections of 28 July, in the face of alleged plans for “the option of fascism of the far right” to “destroy” the institutions and the “electoral system.”
“They could not do so on July 28, 29 and 30 July, they could not do so either with deception or violence, and today they have tried a desperate measure,” said Añez, who added that the objective of this alleged sabotage is to “remove” the “quip” the population.
This new blackout occurs when the country lives or a political crisis after the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed the winner of President Nicolás Maduro based on results that are still unknown in a disaggregated way, which is considered by antichavismo and various countries as one of the signs of the “fraud,” denounced by the PUD, which insists on the “victory” of González Urrutia.
Several states of the country frequently suffer blackouts, in some cases, lasting up to a week, according to users from the different regions of the interior and popular areas of Caracas on a regular basis.
The last major national blackout occurred in March 2019, when much of the country was four days without light.
Then, the government also attributed the national flaw to sabotage, for which it pointed to the opposition and the governments of the United States and Colombia, led at the time by Donald Trump and Ivan Duque, respectively.