Power outage increases tension in Venezuela

A power outage affecting 22 of Venezuela’s 23 states continued for a second day Friday, further complicating the country’s ongoing political crisis. The blackout began Thursday afternoon due to a suspected failure at a major hydroelectric plant in the southern state of Bolivar. Commuters in the capital city of Caracas had to walk home after the outage affected subway service, and the international airport remained mostly without power.

Embattled President Nicolás Maduro ordered schools and government offices to remain closed as power crews worked to solve the problem. The outage became the latest pawn in the political battle between Maduro and Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader and interim president under a clause in the Venezuelan Constitution. Maduro called the power failure an “electrical war” spearheaded by the United States, which backs Guaidó’s leadership. Guaidó blamed Maduro for the outage, calling it “evidence of the usurper’s inefficiency.”