Major power outage hits Venezuela’s capital, with Maduro government blaming ‘sabotage’

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states. President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage, which it said began about 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.” Freddy Nanez, the communications minister, said officials were working to restore power. Venezuela in years past suffered from regular power outages that the government almost always blamed on its opponents, but that energy experts said were the result of brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country’s electrical infrastructure.