National blackout in Venezuela: 11 people arrested

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello reported on Wednesday that there are 11 detainees related to the national blackout of last August 30thor, he reiterated, caused by a “terrorist attack” by the “fascists”, as he usually calls the majority opposition.

“There are already detainees, we are transferring them to Caracas,” Cabello said on his program ‘Con el mazo dando’, without specifying further detailswhile stating that “there will be justice.”

Cabello said that “they know,” in reference to the opposition, that when they “attack the electrical system” they are dealing “a cross-cutting blow,” because, in the event of a blackout, the water supply and the operation of hospitals are affected, contrary to what the anti-Chavez movement claims, which has said that the “deficiency” of electricity, health and other services is due to the “laziness, corruption and incompetence” of the government.

The Interior Minister said that, “in the midst of the attack,” a woman was undergoing a bone marrow transplant operation in a Caracas hospital, which, he added, “fortunately” ended “without any problems.”

National blackout in Venezuela

Last Friday, Nicolás Maduro said that the power outage was caused by a “heart attack” of the Guri system, the main power generation facility located in the state of Bolívar (south, bordering Brazil), perpetrated – he said – by “fascist currents” that “pretended to be the opposition.”

He said they have “determined the mechanisms that were used” in the attack, but did not provide further details, “Well,” he said, “the investigation is in full swing” to “achieve justice in this case.”

The blackout affected most states, according to reports, and was the second in Venezuela after the one in March 2019, when a large part of the country was without electricity for four days, for which the government pointed the finger at the opposition and the United States and Colombia, led at the time by Donald Trump and Iván Duque, respectively.