Blackout hits Venezuelans in several states: Video
Power is gradually being restored across Venezuela following a nationwide blackout that authorities attributed to sabotage of the national electrical grid.
The blackout, the latest crisis to strike the country following a disputed presidential election, affected all 24 states.
While Venezuela is no stranger to power outages, this one was particularly widespread. President Nicolás Maduro's government often blames such incidents on unproven conspiracies aimed at overthrowing him. Authorities reported the blackout began shortly before dawn, but by late afternoon, power was returning to parts of Caracas, as well as the southwestern state of Táchira and western Mérida, according to AFP correspondents.
"We are normalising, regularising, step by step," Maduro said in a televised address on Friday evening, though he did not detail the full extent of the outages or the progress in restoring power. He described the incident as "an attack full of vengeance, full of hatred," accusing "fascist currents" and political opponents, with allegations of U.S. involvement.
Earlier in the day, Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez had reported "an electrical sabotage... which has affected almost the entire national territory."
