Venezuela recovers from massive blackout: Chavismo blames opposition for power cuts

Venezuela resumed electrical service during the early hours of Saturday, August 31, 2024, after a massive blackout lasting more than 12 hours, which the government described as “sabotage” by the opposition amid its claims of electoral fraud.

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The fault originated at the Simón Bolívar hydroelectric plant, Venezuela’s main electricity generator, early Friday morning.The entire country was plunged into darkness, reviving the ghost of the massive 2019 blackout that lasted an average of five days.

“We are normalizing, regularizing, step by step with guarantees, with security.“, said Nicolás Maduro on Friday night without providing details to avoid, as he explained, a “counterattack.” Service interruptions have been frequent for a decade, especially in the province.

Maduro often presents them as opposition plans to overthrow him, although experts speak of a lack of investment and maintenance in the electrical system and its distribution networks. In Andean states such as Mérida and Táchira, or their neighbors Lara and Zulia, in the west, as well as Bolívar, in the south, there are reports of failures in some sectors.

The incident occurred one month before the July 28 elections, in which Maduro was proclaimed re-elected for a third consecutive six-year term.until 2031, amid allegations of fraud.

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Irregular detentions reported in Venezuela

More than 700 detainees during Venezuela’s post-election crisis have been moved to two maximum security prisons over the past week amid “irregularities”the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) said on Saturday.

“The Nicolás Maduro regime carried out the transfer of more than 700 political prisoners, arbitrarily detained after the presidential elections of July 28, who were in police cells throughout the national territory and were taken to the prisons of Tocuyito (Carabobo, center) and Tocorón (Aragua, center),” said the OVP in a press release.

The transfers took place on August 25, 27 and 30 and “were carried out with many irregularities, including some under false pretenses, since their families were not notified. Many of them found out when they went to take food to the police stations,” the NGO added.

More than 2,400 people, including 100 teenagers, have been arrested following protests against Maduro’s re-election on July 28, when he was declared the winner amid allegations of fraud by the opposition, which claims victory for its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.