The United States as well as its allies have nothing to do with a major power outage that hit crisis-stricken Venezuela on Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2019) The United States as well as its allies have nothing to do with a major power outage that hit crisis-stricken Venezuela on Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Earlier in the day, Venezuela's National Electric Power Corporation (Corpoelec) informed about subversion at the Guri dam. Local media, meanwhile, said that the subsequent blackout had hit 21 out of 23 states of Venezuela, with metro lines shut down and mobile service partially disrupted as a result. The power supply in the eastern part of the country has already been fully restored. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the United States of waging an electric energy war against Venezuela.
"The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. 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," Pompeo wrote on his Twitter page.
Since January, Venezuela has been facing a deep political crisis. On January 5, lawmaker Juan Guaido was elected the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which all other government branches have been refusing to recognize since 2016.
On January 23, two days after the Venezuelan Supreme Court annulled his election, Guaido declared himself the country's "interim president." Maduro, who was sworn in for his second presidential term on January 10 after winning the May election, which part of the opposition boycotted, qualified Guaido's move as an attempt to stage a coup orchestrated by Washington.
The United States immediately recognized Guaido, after which some 50 other countries followed suit. Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia and a number of other states have, in the meantime, voiced their support for the legitimate government of Maduro. Mexico and Uruguay have refused to recognize Guaido, declaring themselves neutral and promoting crisis settlement via dialogue.
