Venezuela Arrests Five for ‘Sabotage’ After Nationwide Blackouts

[TomSea]

Venezuela Arrests Five for ‘Sabotage’ After Nationwide Blackouts
By Andrew Rosati and Alex Vasquez

Venezuelan authorities have arrested five people and are seeking to extradite three more for “electric sabotage” that they blame for rolling blackouts over the past month.

The government has identified 19 saboteurs responsible for power cuts beginning March 7, when much of the nation was plunged into darkness for nearly a week, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a televised address Tuesday. Experts have said the outages are caused by neglected maintenance, and Rodriguez provided no proof for his assertions that they were intentional.

President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist regime alleges that two “cybernetic attacks” paralyzed Venezuela’s main hydroelectric dam last month. Rodriguez said distribution systems have since experienced 45 “minor attacks” that include direct sabotage of infrastructure and brush fires set to damage power lines. Rodriguez said the government was close to “permanently stabilizing electricity service.”

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-23/venezuela-power-outage-arrests