Venezuela blackout: Government accuses opposition of 'sabotage' as country plunged into darkness by major electricity outage

Communications minister claims ring-wing extremists taking orders from US senator were behind blackout

Venezuela has been hit by a major blackout, which Nicolas Maduro's swiftly blamed on opposition “sabotage” of a hydroelectric dam.

The power outage hit 22 of 23 states and struck the capital of Caracas, which until now had been spared the worse of the national grid’s collapse.

Venezuela’s socialist government branded the outage an “electrical war” directed by the US. Pro-government officials have blamed past power outages on Venezuela’s opposition, accusing activists of attacking power substations with Molotov cocktails, though they rarely provide evidence.

Communications minister Jorge Rodriguez claimed right-wing extremists intent on causing pandemonium and taking orders from Florida’s Republican senator Marco Rubio were behind the blackout, but offered no proof.

The blackout struck on Thursday and power had yet to be restored in Caracas and many other areas by early Friday morning.

It comes amid a political struggle between Mr Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of congress who declared himself the nation’s rightful president in January and is recognised by the US and around 50 other nations.

Mr Guaido used the outage to attack Mr Maduro on Twitter: ”How do you tell a mom who needs to cook, an ill person who depends on a machine, a worker who should be labouring that we are in a powerful country without electricity?”

He used the hashtag “SinLuz”, meaning “without light”. “Venezuela is clear that the light will return with the end of usurpation.”

Venezuela is currently in the midst of turmoil, experiencing hyperinflation which is projected to reach 10 million per cent this year, as well as suffering food and medical shortages.

It has lost around 10 per cent of its population to migration in the last few years.

Additional reporting by agencies