A massive power outage paralyzed much of Caracas for most of the day, as well as two neighbouring states. The outage began at approximately 11:20 AM, and affected much of the capital city. Sections of Miranda and Vargas states–which border Caracas to the north and south, respectively–were also affected by the outage.
In Caracas, the outage knocked lines 1, 2 and 3 of the city’s subway system, effectively paralyzing the city. The outage also affected the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Vargas state.
Approximately twenty minutes after the start of the blackout, CORPOELEC–the state-owned electrical company–posted a message on its Twitter account saying that its staff were “working to restore electrical service”. The message did not contain information on the cause of the outage, or an estimated service recovery time.
Full service had been restored to affected areas by 5:15 PM.
Minister of Electrical Energy Luis Motta Dominguez said during press conference that the outage was caused by a failure on a piece of equipment linking the Santa Teresa and Tacoa substations.
Below, images of CORPOELEC workers conducting repairs earlier this afternoon:
After service had been restored, Dominguez posted a message on his personal Twitter account calling attention to the power outage that knocked out Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport for much of the day yesterday:
It happens there, too…
“Commandos” Steal Rifles, Ammunition from National Guard Base
A group of “commandos” stole weapons from a National Guard base in Los Teques, Miranda state overnight. The group was made up of an unknown number of assailants. According to official government sources, the men were dressed in black, and at least some of them wore patches from the DGCIM, the Venezuelan army’s counterintelligence unit.
According to El Universal, the assault on the base began at approximately 2:30 AM this morning, when the attackers told the National Guard soldiers on duty that they were there to execute a warrant. The attackers were led into the base by the soldiers, who were then subdued by the attackers.
The attackers made off with the following:
- 26 AK-103 assault rifles.
- 108 AK-103 magazines containing 3,240 bullets.
- 3 9 mm pistols
- 67 9 mm bullets.
The attackers also wrote the phrase “LIBERTAD 350” [Liberty 350] on the walls of the base, suggesting that the attack was conducted by anti-regime forces. The phrase, which became popular during this year’s protests, references Article 350 of the Constitution, which establishes the duty to rebel against tyrannical rule.
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