Venezuela power outage: Maduro blames ‘sabotage’ in Caracas blackout [Video]

CARACAS, Venezuela –

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. “Nobody will take away our peace and tranquility of the Venezuelan people,” he wrote in a message shared with journalists on Telegram.

Nanez said in a voice message on Telegram that all 24 of Venezuela’s states had been at least partially impacted. He characterized the outage as a “desperate” attempt by Maduro’s opponents to violently oust the president.

“The entire national government has been activated to overcome this new aggression,” he said.