Another round of power outages struck socialist Venezuela on Monday, just weeks after the crisis-stricken country experienced the worst blackouts in recent history.
According to El Nacional, power outages were reported in 16 states across the country on Monday, forcing the closure of the subway system in the capital of Caracas.
Responding to the failure in a televised address, the socialist regime’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the outages were a result of illegal attacks on the country’s electrical grid by the “fascist right” and their “imperial masters” in Washington.
“What was the objective of this new attack? To deprive Venezuela’s people of electricity as happened so terribly just two weeks ago,” Rodríguez said, without providing any evidence for her claims. “What (last time) took days, now has been taken care of in just a few hours.”
Venezuela experienced its most severe blackout in decades earlier this month, with around 70 percent of the country receiving little to no electricity for close to a week. The situation caused chaos around the country, with widespread street demonstrations, looting sprees, and the closure of many essential public services.
Meanwhile, dozens of people died in hospitals due to a breakdown in essential medical equipment. The outage also caused considerable damage to the country’s water supply, with many people reporting what appeared to be oil-contaminated black water being pumped into their homes.
Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who is internationally recognized as the country’s legitimate president, claimed that the last blackout caused over $400 million in losses to the country’s already strained private sector.
“We are in the middle of a catastrophe that is not the result of a hurricane, that is not the result of a tsunami,” he told CNN Español at the time. “It’s the product of the inefficiency, the incapability, the corruption of a regime that doesn’t care about the lives of Venezuelans.”
Last week, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric added that the international body remains “very concerned” about the situation and the impact of the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
“We are very concerned about the serious humanitarian impact that the power outage is having in Venezuela, as well as about reported incidents of looting and violence throughout the country,” he said in a statement.
China, which has developed a predatory financial relationship with the Maduro regime, previously offered its assistance to the regime, with a spokesperson stating that Beijing is “deeply concerned” about the impact of the blackout on people’s lives.
“China hopes that the Venezuelan side can discover the reason for this issue as soon as possible and resume normal power supply and social order,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said last week. “China is willing to provide help and technical support to restore Venezuela’s power grid.”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.