Huge power cut blacks out much of Venezuela

{A massive power cut plunged the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and other cities into darkness on Monday evening.
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The Caracas metro ground to a halt and people had to be evacuated from shops and offices.

President Nicolas Maduro tweeted that the cut had been triggered in the same place as an outage in September, and suggested “sabotage” was responsible.

Power cuts are common in Venezuela, especially in the inland states, but rarely affect the capital.

Although Venezuela has large oil reserves it is dependent on hydro-electricity for about 70% of its power.

The blackout took place shortly after 20:00 on Monday (00:30 GMT Tuesday) as President Maduro was addressing the nation on television.

Deprived of the airwaves, Mr Maduro took to Twitter to say that the government was monitoring the “strange blackout that occurred in the same place as the last act of sabotage”.

BBC