Venezuela: Electricity back after third outage in March

By Lokman Ilhan

CARACAS (AA) – Venezuela mostly recovered on Saturday the electricity after a third power outage in a month.

The South American country was again plunged into darkness on Friday evening and most of the capital Caracas gained the service back in the early hours of Saturday, while most of the other affected states also recovered in day.

The El Nacional, the country’s opposition news website, claimed the power blackout was ongoing regionally in 15 states.

After a week-long power cut, which began on March 7, in Venezuela, the country went through another blackout on March 25.

While the government announced that the cuts were due to cyber and physical sabotage, the opposition claimed that the electricity system collapsed due to the government’s lack of adequate efforts in infrastructure.

Venezuela has been rocked by protests since Jan. 10 when Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term following a vote boycotted by the opposition.

Tensions flared when opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president on Jan. 23 -- a move supported by the U.S. and many European and Latin American countries.

Turkey, Russia, China, Iran, Bolivia and Mexico have put their weight behind Maduro.

* Writing by Sena Guler