Venezuela blamed an “attack” on its electric system for a blackout on Monday, the second to hit the OPEC nation this month, that shuttered businesses, plunged the main airport into darkness and left commuters stranded in the capital, Reuters reports.
Power went out in much of Caracas and nearly a dozen states in the early afternoon, stirring memories of a week-long outage earlier in the month that was the most severe in the country’s history.
Service was restored in many areas within hours on Monday and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a televised broadcast that power was being “progressively reestablished.”
“We have suffered a new attack on our national electricity system’s load and transmission center today,” Rodriguez said, adding that the event had “similar characteristics” to the March 7 “attack.”