Venezuela paralysed for days by power blackout that President Nicolas Maduro blames on US attack
- Engineers have struggled to restore power after electricity and communications shut down nationwide Thursday
- President Nicolas Maduro accuses his US-backed adversary of sabotaging the national grid
Opposition lawmakers and aid groups have warned that an unprecedented nationwide blackout in Venezuela was causing a rising number of deaths, as citizens struggled for almost five days to find food and water and hospitals were paralysed.
“What Venezuelans are living today looks like a science fiction movie,” said Juan Guaido, the opposition leader who is spearheading a US-backed campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
On Sunday, the fourth day of the country’s blackout, Guaido said at least 17 deaths had occurred at hospitals as a result of the outages.
Fifteen of them were in the eastern city of Maturin, he said. Meanwhile, a medical aid group, Codevida, said it had reports of 15 people who had died due to kidney failure linked to the lack of power.
It was not possible to independently confirm the reports.
The blackout, which began on Thursday, has intensified the toxic political climate, with Guaido blaming alleged government corruption and mismanagement and President Nicolas Maduro accusing his US-backed adversary of sabotaging the national grid.