Nicolás Maduro calls for calm in the face of the new national blackout

Nicholas Maduro called for calm in the face of a new criminal attack against the national electrical system that, according to the government, was the cause of the blackout national which was recorded this Friday from 4:50 local time (8:50 GMT).

“As always, I am with the people and I am at the forefront of the situation, facing this criminal attack against the national electrical system. I have said it and I repeat it: Calm and sanity, nerves of steel!” the head of state said in a message on Telegram.

The Chavista leader blamed fascism for attacking the people, a new attack that everyone in the country – he added – will overcome together.

Hours earlier, the Minister of Communication, Freddy Ñáñez, said that this sabotage is part of the coup plan that has been assumed by the standard-bearer of the largest opposition coalition – the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) -, Edmundo González Urrutia, and his closest ally, María Corina Machado, whose political disqualification the official hopes will remain in place for “the rest of the days.”

Later, the head of the Interior Ministry, Diosdado Cabello, warned that there will be justice for the new electrical attack.

This blackout occurs when the country is experiencing a political crisis after the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolás Maduro the winner based on results that are still unknown in a disaggregated form, which is considered by the opposition and a large part of the international community as one of the signs of fraud, denounced by the PUD, which insists on González Urrutia’s victory.

The power outage occurred despite the special 24-hour patrol and surveillance plan of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) in all electrical installations, implemented since the end of June by order of Maduro, who then denounced that fascist extreme right groups were preparing an electrical war to harm the country.

States in the country frequently experience power outages, which in some cases last up to a week, according to reports by citizens in the interior states and working-class areas of Caracas on a regular basis.

The last major national blackout occurred 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.