Electrical systems in Venezuela have been targeted by another cyberattack, President Nicholas Maduro has said. Caracas has accused the US of “sabotage”, while US officials blame local corruption and mismanagement for the blackout.

After a failure at the Guri hydroelectric power plant left much of the country without power on Thursday night, Venezuelan authorities managed to restore power to “many parts” of the country. However, the country’s grid took another hammering on Saturday, with many of the restored systems knocked out once again, the country’s embattled president said.

Maduro said the systems had been nearly 70 percent restored when “we received another attack, of a cybernetic nature, at midday… that disturbed the reconnection process and knocked out everything that had been achieved until noon.”

Additionally, “one of the sources of generation that was working perfectly,” was also sabotaged, he added, accusing domestic “infiltrators of attacking the electric company from the inside.”

Authorities are now trying to restore the systems “manually,” while struggling to “diagnose why the computerized” systems failed on such a massive scale.

Earlier, unconfirmed reports suggested that 95 percent of the crisis-stricken country was again without power, after Sidor Substation in Bolivar state had allegedly exploded, spewing clouds of black smoke into the sky. The substation had reportedly been sustaining the country’s power supply since the Guri plant –which produces 80 percent of the country’s power– failed.

The Venezuelan government blamed Thursday’s blackout on US “sabotage.” President Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of waging an “electricity war” on the socialist state, while communication and information minister Jorge Rodriguez blamed the outage on a US-orchestrated cyberattack.

Meanwhile US officials, including a vocal proponent of regime change in Venezuela, Senator Marco Rubio, blamed the socialist policies of Maduro’s government for letting the country’s infrastructure crumble to breaking point. The Florida Republican claimed that the country’s union of electricity workers had predicted the blackout, accused Maduro of pocketing money that could have been used for repairs, and joked that he “must have pressed the wrong thing on the ‘electronic attack’ app I downloaded from Apple.”

Like this story? Share it with a friend! </s> Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez said on Saturday that the country’s near-total blackout has been caused by a cyberattack against the Guri hydroelectric power plant, which provides over 70 percent of the nation's electricity. Rodrigues claimed the outage could have been staged by the US.

“They [the US] carried out a cyberattack on [Guri’s] automatic control system. Everything shows that it is a multiformat and violent attack against all of Venezuela", Rodriguez told the country’s state television network.

READ MORE: Pompeo on Venezuela Blackout: 'Maduro’s Policies Bring Nothing but Darkness'

He said that a delegation headed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will visit Venezuela in the next few days and that Caracas “will show her the proof about these criminals”.

“We will submit a complaint to her in order for the world to respect human rights in Venezuela”, Rodriguez underscored, vowing that the electric power supply will be restored in the coming hours throughout the country.

His statement comes after Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza lashed out on Friday at politicians close to US President Donald Trump for "celebrating" and “enjoying the reckless distortion [of facts]” in the wake of electricity supply issues facing Venezuela.

READ MORE: Venezuelan President Maduro Says 'Electric Energy War' Declared by US to Fail

On Thursday, the Venezuelan national electricity supplier reported that Guri had faced deliberate sabotage, with a power outage subsequently registered in 21 out of Venezuela’s 23 states. President Nicolas Maduro accused the US of waging an "electricity war" against Venezuela. </s> Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said one of his country’s eclectic facilities was subjected by high-tech cyber attacks on Saturday.

Speaking in an anti-imperialist rally in capital Caracas, Maduro said the attack was committed by using “high-tech” weapons that "only the U.S. government has in the world".

"Today we have restored power supply in 70 percent of the country’s territory, but at noon, another cyber-attack was committed against one of the facilities, which until then worked perfectly. For this reason, all the progress we had achieved by mid-afternoon was interrupted," he added.

He stated the spies inside Venezuela's national electricity firm are behind the power outage and vowed to identify and punish them as soon as possible.

"These attacks were carried out with the use of high scientific achievements, there were electromagnetic attacks against national electric lines."

Accusing the U.S. of the blackout, Maduro described the U.S. backed opposition leader, Juan Guaido as "clown" and "puppet".

Venezuela has been suffering a major power cut since Thursday leaving 21 out of 23 states of Venezuela in dark.

The outage was previously termed as a "sabotage". Local media outlet El Pitazo reported the outage appeared to be the result of a failure at the Simon Bolivar hydroelectric plant also known as the Guri Dam in the southern state of Bolivar.

The Guri Dam is one of the world's largest hydroelectric stations and the main power supply to Venezuela's electrical grid.

Venezuela has been rocked by protests since Jan. 10 when Maduro was sworn in for a second term following a vote boycotted by the opposition.

Tensions flared when opposition leader Guaido declared himself acting president on Jan. 23 -- a move supported by the U.S. and many European and Latin American countries.

Russia, Turkey, China, Iran, Bolivia and Mexico have put their weight behind Maduro. </s> CARACAS, Venezuela — Much of Venezuela remained engulfed by darkness early Friday amid one of the largest power outages in years, a problem President Nicolas Maduro's government quickly blamed on "sabotage" at a hydroelectric dam.

The blackout hit 22 of 23 states, according to the Associated Press. It struck the capital Caracas, which until now has been spared the worst of a collapse in the nation's grid, at the peak of rush hour.

Venezuela's socialist government blasted the outage as an "electrical war" directed by the United States.

Blackouts are frequent in Venezuela, where the economy is collapsing under hyperinflation, with chronic shortages of food and medicine and a mass emigration of more than 3 million citizens.

Critics say corruption and under investment have left the country's power grid unable to function, while Maduro says the problems are intentionally created by political adversaries.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said right-wing extremists intent on causing pandemonium in Venezuela and taking orders from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio were behind the blackout, although he offered no proof.

State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on act of "sabotage" at the Guri Dam, one of the world's largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela's electrical grid. Rodriguez described it as a "cyber" attack intended to derail the whole system. He said electricity in Venezuela's eastern region had been restored within two hours.

Thousands of commuters flooded into the streets because subway service was stopped. A snarl of cars jammed the streets amid confusion generated by blackened stoplights. Others had to walk long distances to get home.

"The person responsible for this is named Nicolas Maduro," said Pedro Fernandez, 44, a systems engineer in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas, on his way by foot to the other side of town. "This is just the tip of the iceberg given all the things we're suffering."

The outage comes as Venezuela is in the throes of a political struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó, the head of congress who declared himself the nation's rightful president in January and is recognized by the United States and about 50 nations.

Guaidó took to Twitter to blast Maduro for the outage.

"How do you tell a mom who needs to cook, an ill person who depends on a machine, a worker who should be laboring that we are in a powerful country without electricity?" he wrote.

Venezuela's electrical system was once the envy of Latin America but it has fallen into a state of disrepair after years of poor maintenance and mismanagement. High-ranking officials have been accused in U.S. court proceedings of looting government money earmarked for the electrical system. </s> When US President Donald Trump and other senior White House officials earlier bragged that "all options are on the table" for Washington's regime change objective in Venezuela, it has to be assumed now that one of those options included a devastating cyber sabotage of the country's power infrastructure.

For its part, the government of President Nicolas Maduro is convinced that the US is waging an "electrical war" and is behind the latest power outages. Washington and its anointed Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaido claim that the disruption is the result of "incompetent management" of the country by Maduro's socialist government.

However, the scale of the latest blackouts indicate an unprecedented damage to the country's power infrastructure.

At first, the Venezuelan government was promising that electricity supplies would be resumed "within hours" after the initial blackout which happened Thursday. That resumption has apparently not been achieved yet by the authorities — several days later.

READ MORE: Cabinet Minister Says Venezuela's Blackout May Be Caused by US Cyberattack

The entire country appears to have been paralyzed. The public transport systems of trains and airports have been shut down. Without electricity to operate fuel pumps, cars and other traffic have also ground to a halt.

At night, Caracas the capital and other major cities are hooded in darkness without house and street lights and other basic services.

Hospitals are reportedly struggling to maintain life-saving operations, such as ventilators for newborn babies.

It is no exaggeration to say that lives will be lost as a result of the far-reaching power cuts.

The nationwide scale and duration of the outages strongly suggest that the disruption has been caused by deliberate sabotage — as the Venezuelan government says.

There doesn't appear to be any hard proof of how the purported sabotage was carried out. But a reasonable conjecture would be that some form of cyber attack was launched on the Venezuelan power grid.

That might explain why it is taking so long to isolate and rectify the problem.

Washington's rapid reaction to the latest power calamity is suggestive of a premeditated act. Politicians like Senator Marco Rubio who has been leading the regime-change campaign did not skip a beat to immediately proclaim the outages as "evidence" of the Maduro government's mismanagement and illegitimacy. This line was also quickly chimed by the US-backed opposition figure Guaido, whom Washington has arbitrarily and illegally designated as the "recognized president" of Venezuela.

READ MORE: US and Opposition Want to Unleash an 'Oil War' to Invade Venezuela — Maduro

Guaido further hinted at the colossal blackmail tactic being played.

He declared that "the lights will come back on when the usurper Maduro is overthrown".

There are several other reasons which point to the US using a "stealth war" strategy.

We know that the Americans have serious cyber-attack capabilities.

Only a few years back, the US launched a mass attack on Iranian infrastructure with the so-called Stuxnet computer virus. At the time, the Americans even publicly boasted about perpetrating that sabotage.

The irony is that the US and its NATO allies continually accuse Russia of attempting to knock out civil infrastructure in their countries.

Such cyber stealth is part of the supposed "hybrid war" that Moscow has developed to target "Western democracy". Lurid claims have often been made in Western news media about Russia aiming to decimate power and transport systems through computer hacking.

Moscow has denied all such claims as provocative slander. No doubt Russia has developed its own cyber weapons, as many other states have, as part of a modern arsenal against would-be enemies. But Western allegations against Moscow are more likely to be what the psychologists call "projection of their guilt" in having the capability and actually deploying cyber weapons. Venezuela would seem to a present case in point.

Venezuela has well-equipped and robust armed forces. Those forces have shown their mettle recently by remaining loyal to the government and nation's constitution, despite immense intimidation and bribes issued by Washington and its opposition surrogates. The Trump administration has no doubt realized that any military adventurism in South America would be met with a fierce and potentially humiliating response.

Secondly, Russia last week announced that it would not tolerate any American military intervention in Venezuela, with whom Moscow is a firm ally.

The solid military defense of Venezuela, the steadfastness of its army and the majority of civilians in support of Maduro, as well as its Russian ally, probably persuaded the Americans to take the stealth war option — in the form of sabotaging the country's power grid.

READ MORE: Stalled Coup: US' Allies May Soon Regret They Rushed to Embrace Guaido – Journo

The added advantage of this option is "plausible deniability" for the Americans. A military attack on Venezuela could have incurred major political and legal problems as the world would have witnessed a gratuitous aggression.

By crippling the country through cyber attacks on its civilian power supply, Washington can use deception to hide its dirty hands. Better still, it can lay the blame on "mismanagement" by the Maduro government.

By contrast, the abstract method of stealth aggression will throw many Venezuelans into doubt about who just is the perpetrator. They may even be convinced by Washington and its orchestrated opposition puppet, and hence blame President Maduro for their latest travails.

Stealth war may be hard to discern. Nevertheless, it is still a monstrously criminal act of aggression.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik </s> • A massive blackout has hit most of Venezuela, an anomaly even for a country that has frequent power shortages.
• President Nicolás Maduro blamed “American imperialism” for starting an “electricity war” with the Venezuelan people.
• Critics say the power grid is decaying because the government is not maintaining and funding it.

A massive blackout has left most of Venezuela in the dark, surprising even locals who have grown accustomed to food, medicine and power shortages.

The electricity went out in 22 out of 23 states on Thursday, and is still not working as of early Friday, The Associated Press reported.

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro blamed the opposition without presenting evidence, as he commonly does in the case of a power outage.

Read more: Nicolas Maduro posted a 40-minute livestream about his plans for celebrating Carnaval as Venezuela continues to collapse

“We will defeat the electricity war American imperialism has announced and orchestrated against our people,” he said on Twitter.

Jorge Rodríguez, the communications minister, went on the state channel TeleSur to denounce the “sabotage” of a power generator at the Guri Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric stations in the world.

Critics say the government has let a once impressive power grid decay because of corruption, poor maintenance and under investment.

Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader who more than 50 countries now recognize as Venezuela’s rightful president, said Maduro must resign so the electricity system can be restored.

“We have water, we have petrol, we have gas. But unfortunately we have a usurper in Miraflores [the presidential palace],” he tweeted.

When the blackout hit on Thursday at the peak of rush hour, chaos ensued on the streets of the capital Caracas as thousands of commuters were forced to leave the subway, The AP reported. Generators also shut down at some hospitals where nurses had to monitor vitals with candles.

“The person responsible for this is named Nicolás Maduro,” Pedro Fernandez, a 44-year-old systems engineer, told Reuters. “This is just the tip of the iceberg given all the things we’re suffering.”

Read more: A timeline of the political crisis in Venezuela, which began with claims of election rigging and has the US calling for regime change

Venezuela is engulfed in a humanitarian and political crisis. As empty supermarkets and soaring crime drive millions of refugees abroad, Guaidó is trying to unseat Maduro.

Earlier this week, the opposition leader returned to Venezuela after a 10 day exile despite government threats to arrest him.

He is currently trying to galvanize support among state employees, and is planning a public sector strike with union leaders. </s> A cyber-attack is likely the reason for the major blackout that left most of Venezuela in darkness, a Maduro government official said, hinting that the US may be involved in the offensive.

As Venezuela is still reeling from a nationwide blackout, Nicolas Maduro’s government says the emergency was the result of an external influence. The major power outage was likely prompted by a cyber-attack against the Guri hydroelectric plant which produces 80% of the country’s electricity, Jorge Rodriguez, Venezuela’s communication and information minister said on Friday, according to local media.

The official went on to hint that US Senator and fierce anti-Maduro campaigner Marco Rubio may be linked to the offensive. Rodriguez found it suspicious that shortly after the failure Rubio shared specific information on Twitter about the emergency that even local authorities were not aware of at that time.

Branding the country-wide power outage “the most brutal attack on the Venezuelan people in 200 years,” the minister promised to file a complaint to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

President Nicolas Maduro earlier also raised suspicions of Washington standing behind the power outage as he accused the US of waging the “electricity war.” The country’s electric energy minister, for his part, said that “deliberate sabotage” on behalf of the US-backed opposition was the reason.

Caracas and a number of other Venezuela’s cities were plunged into darkness on Thursday. The power outage shut the capital’s subway and left principal roads gridlocked as traffic lights were put out of order. The country’s largest international airport was also left without power. While power started to return to some parts of Caracas officials are so far unable to fully restore the supply.

The blackout caught Venezuela amid a full-fledged political crisis as the country is split between the supporters of President Maduro and the opposition leader Juan Guaido. The latter – who enjoys the support of the US as well as most of the EU and Latin American countries – proclaimed himself an interim president back in January. In February, US President Donald Trump said he does not exclude military intervention in the conflict torn-country. Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and a number of other states have warned against meddling into Venezuela’s internal affairs.

Like this story? Share it with a friend! </s> Described by the Venezuelan government as an act of “sabotage”, cities such as Caracas were struck by the power outage. BNO News reports the outage started in the late afternoon and had affected all parts of the country. The blackout is the latest fiasco to strike the nation, which has been badly affected by an ongoing row between Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition leader Juan Guaido.

AFP news agency say that many businesses have been forced to shut down. The organisation adds that the government have called it “sabotage”. The country is still in darkness and officials are unable to confirm exactly when residents should expect power to be restored.

Maduro claims the US were behind the incident. He said: “The electric war announced and directed by US imperialism against our people will be defeated.” Power is generated at the country’s Guri Dam base in the Bolívar State. The supply is controlled by firm Corpoelec, which said on it Twitter it was working to restore it. </s> Blackout In Venezuela Leaves Its Leaders Casting Blame In The Dark

A massive power outage has swept across Venezuela, leaving its two leaders at odds over who is to blame for plunging the country into darkness at a time of deep political unrest.

The outage began Thursday evening at rush hour, bringing the subway system in Caracas to a halt. Thousands of commuters returned home on foot, their walks lit only by mobile phones and the stars.

President Nicolás Maduro was quick to blame the "electricity war" on the United States, which has supported Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaidó after he declared himself interim president in January and received endorsements from dozens of countries.

"The electricity war declared and directed by U.S. imperialism against our people will be defeated," Maduro said. "Nothing and nobody will vanquish the people of Bolívar and Chávez."

Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodríguez described the outage as an attack on Venezuela's electric system — "a criminal action" driven by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken critic of Maduro.

Guaidó said that 22 states were without electricity for hours, breaking a record for Caracas.

"Chaos, concern and indignation," he said.

"This blackout is evidence of the usurper's inefficiency," Guaidó said, referring to Maduro. "The recovery of the electric sector and the country comes by stopping the usurpation."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed Guaidó's stance, faulting Maduro's regime for the energy shortage. "The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA," he said. "It's not because of Colombia. It's not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime's incompetence."

He added, "No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro."

Pompeo's remark follows a humanitarian operation that went awry in February. Truckloads of food and medicine were turned away at the border and Maduro's government celebrated it as a victory against regime change.

Over the years, food and medicine shortages have sent millions of citizens fleeing for a better life. Hyperinflation is estimated to hit 10 million percent in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund, and sanctions imposed by the Trump administration are likely to increase the country's economic plight.

Electricity shortages are not uncommon in the once rich country. Despite having vast oil reserves, the government exports its oil and Venezuelans rely on hydropower for their energy. Years of scant investment in hydroelectric infrastructure, combined with drought, have crippled the energy grid.

A decade after the nationalization of the energy sector in 2007, the government started switching off the power grid in cities and towns across the country. Because of the rolling blackouts, Venezuelans have seen their food decompose, their appliances ruined and even their health care suffer, with doctors saying they sometimes perform surgeries under the light of mobile phones. Last year, one outage resulted in the deaths of three people, including a newborn.

On Thursday, nurses at a wealthy Caracas health clinic held candles to monitor the vital signs of premature babies because backup generators had shut off, The Associated Press reported. Maduro ordered schools, businesses and government entities to shutter while crews tried to restore power.

Rubio reminded his followers on Twitter that Maduro's regime has gone so far as to blame iguanas for its electrical woes. And he hit back at Communications Minister Jorge Rodríguez, who accused him of fomenting the massive outage."My apologies to people of Venezuela," Rubio said. "I must have pressed the wrong thing on the 'electronic attack' app I downloaded from Apple. My bad."
A nationwide power blackout enters its second day in Venezuela. Information Minister Jorge Rodríguez and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López claim the country appears to be the victim of a cyberattack intended to "derail the whole system". Venezuelan National Assembly-declared Acting President Juan Guaidó stated that "state corruption and mismanagement (...) have left the electrical grid in shambles".