Venezuela’s Maduro Says Cyber Attack Prevented Power Restoration

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro claimed on Saturday that a new cyber attack had prevented authorities from restoring power throughout the country following a blackout on Thursday that caused chaos.

Maduro told supporters in Caracas that almost 70 percent of power had been restored when “we received at midday another cyber attack at one of the generators that was working perfectly and that disturbed and undid everything we had achieved.”

A massive power cut late on Thursday afternoon plunged almost the entire country into darkness and while services had resumed intermittently in some areas on Saturday, others remained without electricity.

The government blamed the outage on US sabotage at the central generator in Guri, in the country’s south, which provides 80 percent of Venezuela with its electricity.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez blamed the original blackout on “a cyber attack against the automated control system” at Guri.

Venezuela regularly suffers from partial outages but Thursday’s was one of the worst and longest in recent memory and paralyzed most of the country.

It caused chaos with public services such as water and transport also grinding to a halt, while hospitals were left without power.

The opposition said dozens of people died as a result of the power cut, a claim denied by Rodriguez.

Experts say Venezuela’s power problems are due to a lack of investment in infrastructure.

Maduro’s regime usually blames outages on outside factors.