Venezuela suffers another mass power outage

Less than two weeks after officials restored electricity to much of the country, many Venezuelans again lost power in a Monday blackout that affected 14 of the country’s 23 states, El Nacional newspaper reported. The outage suspended subway service in the capital city of Caracas and shut down communication lines across the country. Officials restored power early in the evening, but it went out again soon after.

Venezuela has been mired in political crisis since January, when National Assembly Leader Juan Guaidó assumed the title of interim president after invoking a clause in the Venezuelan Constitution. Embattled President Nicolás Maduro has faced persistent calls to resign from the United States and more than 50 other countries that recognized Guaidó’s presidency.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez called the blackout an “electromagnetic” assault led by the opposition and its allies in Washington, D.C. Maduro’s government similarly blamed the March 7 blackout, the worst in the country’s history, on the United States. The Trump administration has denied any role in the outages.

“This outage is evidence that the dictator is incapable of resolving the crisis,” Guaidó tweeted on Monday.