Today, much of Venezuela awoke to a widespread power outage, which authorities claim was caused by saboteurs targeting the national electrical grid. According to Communications Minister Freddy Nanez, who spoke on the state channel VTV, the outage occurred around 04:40 local time (08:40 GMT), with reports of total or partial blackouts from nearly every part of the country, including the capital, Caracas. “We have again become victims of electrical sabotage,” said Nanez without providing further details. He added that authorities were working to fully restore the power supply. “The entire national government has been activated to overcome this new aggression,” he stated.

Power outages are not uncommon in Venezuela, although they are usually more localized. During a period of political unrest in 2019, Venezuela frequently suffered from blackouts, which the government almost always attributed to sabotage and opposition to President Nicolas Maduro’s regime. However, energy experts have pointed out that such outages often result from bushfires damaging transmission lines, as well as poor maintenance of the country’s hydroelectric infrastructure.

Following the controversial presidential election last month, officials have been quick to blame opponents for even minor disruptions. On Tuesday, several states experienced a series of minor power outages, which Nanez also attributed to saboteurs. These outages coincided with anti-government protests the following day, where critics of Maduro took to the streets to mobilize opposition to his administration, exactly one month after the election.

“This is a constant strategy from the opposition, the enemies of the country, to influence the population,” said Diosdado Cabello, the newly appointed Minister of the Interior, who is believed to be the second most powerful man in the country, following Tuesday’s outage.

Residents of the capital are taking Friday’s power disruptions in stride. Traffic during the typically busy rush hour was lighter than usual, and some people complained that they were unable to communicate with family members due to a lack of mobile phone services.