Venezuelans woke up to a significant power outage in the capital city of Caracas and several states on Friday. The government of President Nicolas Maduro attributed the outage, which began around 4:50 a.m., to what they called 'electrical sabotage.'
The communications minister stated that efforts were underway to restore power and ensure the peace and tranquility of the Venezuelan people. In the past, Venezuela has faced frequent power outages, often blamed on political opponents by the government. However, energy experts have pointed to issues such as brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country's electrical infrastructure as the root causes.
While the country's economy has stabilized in recent years, with reduced inflation and improved availability of imported goods due to de facto dollarization, incidents like the recent power outages still raise concerns. Following a contested presidential election last month, officials have been quick to attribute any disruptions to their opponents.
Residents of Caracas appeared to be coping with the outage, with lighter than usual traffic during rush hour and some difficulties in communication due to cellphone service interruptions. A 25-year-old salesclerk shared her experience of noticing the power outage when her fan stopped working, hoping for a quick resolution as she headed to work.
Despite the challenges posed by the power outage, Venezuelans are resilient and adapting to the situation as authorities work to restore electricity and investigate the cause of the disruption.
