Massive blackout in Venezuela a result of "terrorist attack" or infrastructure breakdown?

I am not even following lamestream media on this but Steve Lookner of "Agenda-free" television is calling the popularly-elected government "the regime" while Hal Turner is putting it down to "commies in charge"

Venezuela Terrorism? Explosion Is Second Attack On Power Grid In Two Days – Guaido Blames Maduro

Yesterday, a cyber attack, today, an explosion

FortRuss,

19 March, 2019

We collect El Nacional, Tass, the AP, and Marco Rubio to tell this story.

El Nacional

Citizens have reported an explosion at the Sidor substation (Guayana), near the Ciudad Bolívar national highway. [Ciudad Bolivar is the capital of the Bolivar State of Venezuela -tr] In the images you can see the flames that surround the structure located in an industrial area. The authorities have not ruled on the situation.

A citizen’s tweet is included in the El Nacional report. It blames the explosion on “lack of maintenance”!:

strong explosion Subway Station Guayana B. National Road Cd Bolívar after the Port I of Sidor. #CrisisElectrica #VenezuelaSinLuz # 09Mar 10:12 am. Lack of maintenance and investment is also sabotage. Down with the Dictatorship

one of the world’s largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela’s electrical grid. Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez described it as a cyberattack on the dam’s operating system which signals to machines whether to boost or diminish power based on capacity and demand.”

TASS also reports from El Nacional with background on the earlier massive outage:

CARACAS, March 9th. / TASS /. An explosion at an electrical substation occurred on Saturday in the southeastern state of Bolivar. This was reported by the newspaper El Nacional, citing eyewitnesses. According to El Nacional, the substation was located on the outskirts of the state capital – the city of Ciudad Bolivar. In pictures posted on social networks one can see a large column of black smoke and a fire. No data on victims have been reported. On Thursday evening, Caracas and most of the states of Venezuela were left without power supply. According to the local press, it affected about 20 or 22 of the 23 states. Thus, the electricity was absent almost throughout the country. According to residents of the capital, this is the longest power outage in their memory in the city.Now the power supply in some areas of Caracas is restored. According to the National Electric Company, the cause of the incident was sabotage at the Simon Bolivar hydroelectric station in Bolivar, the largest in the country. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blamed “American imperialism” for what happened. The US Department of State has denied the allegations.

But Senator Marco Rubio and his tools know the real scoop. Lack of maintenance:

“What causes blackouts in #Venezuea? Lack of maintenance. An overheated substation exploded today in Guayana, near the Bolivar National Highway.”

MaduroSays One of Venezuelan Energy Facilities Suffered Cyberattack onSaturday

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that a cyber attack was carried out against one of the country's energy facilities on Saturday, which did not allow the authorities to restore the electricity supply interrupted earlier in the week.

"Today we have restored power supply in 70 percent of the country’s territory, but at noon, another cyber attack was committed against one of the facilities, which until then worked perfectly. For this reason, all the progress we had achieved by mid-afternoon was interrupted," Maduro said in Caracas on Saturday.

The blackout swept Venezuela on Thursday as national electricity supplier Corpoelec reported about "sabotage" at the major Guri hydroelectric power plant. Media subsequently reported about power outages in 21 out or 23 Venezuela's states.

CubanPresident Calls Massive Blackout in Venezuela Result of 'TerroristAttack'

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Saturday that the incident at the Venezuelan Guri hydroelectric power plant that resulted in a major blackout in the country was a "terrorist attack" against the people of Venezuela.

The blackout swept Venezuela on Thursday, as national electricity supplier Corpoelec reported about a "sabotage" at the Guri plant. Media subsequently reported about power outages in 21 out or 23 Venezuela's states. As of now, power supply is gradually being restored.

"The electric energy sabotage in Venezuela is a dirty terrorist attack aimed at undermining the Venezuelan people's resistance and to encourage military intervention," Diaz-Canel posted on Twitter.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blamed the United States, which supports the opposition in the ongoing Venezuelan crisis and even plans to create a coalition for power transition, for waging an electric energy war against Venezuela. However, Washington denied having a role in the electricity system collapse.

Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez suggested that the United States had carried out a cyberattack on the automatic control system of the power plant. He has also announced that Venezuela would soon submit a complaint over the matter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

The latest from Florida Maquis

A reminder from history

Blackout Interrupts Address by Allende

NYTimes,

143 August,1973

SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 13 —A power cut brought a total blackout here as President Salvador Allende Gossens was in the middle of a nationwide address on the country's political crisis.

There were reports that Valparaiso, Chile's second city, and other areas of the country were blacked out. The electricity went off at 10:15 P.M., 35 minutes after President Allende had begun to speak, citing long list of recent acts of terrorism and sabotage that he attributed to “fascist opposition.”

[He went back on the air, The Associated Press reported, as power was beginning to be restored in some areas, and said that the blackout could have been either “a technically explicable failure or a fascist attack.” The news agency said that unidentified saboteurs blew up an electric‐power transmission line outside the city, attributing the information to Fernando Figueroa, general manager of the state power system.]

Before the power cut, Presi dent Allende warned that hp would call on Congress to declare a state of siege if calm was not rapidly restored in the nation.

Earlier, a left‐wing newspaper in Santiago accused the United States Ambassador, Nathaniel Davis, and the Central Intelligence Agency of having financed the anti‐Government strikes that have disrupted the country's economy.

The charges in the daily Ultima Hora appeared to be the beginning of a campaign accusing the United States of playing a role in the current political crisis.

The newspaper called for congressional investigation and promised greater detail in forthcoming articles.

The United States Embassy said nothing on the charges and there were indications that Ambassador Davis would make no comment.

The attacks on the Ambassador are clearly a left‐wing response to charges by the leading right‐wing newspapers that Cuba is behind the crisis.

Charging “concrete and undeniable interference,” Ultima Hora said the United States Embassy had financed both the truckers strike of last October and their current.walkout, which has shaken the Government and virtually paralyzed the country. The newspaper accused Ambassador Davis bf being an agent of the C.I.A.

Meanwhile, Chile's new Military‐backed Government announced that tomorrow it would begin to requisition the vehicles of the striking truckers.

The Minister of Public Works, Gen. Cesar Ruiz Danyau, the air force commander in chief, met with transport leaders to inform them of the Government's decision and to try to work out a last‐minute solution.

In an editorial, the newspaper, which reflects the thinking of President Salvador Allende Gossens's Socialist party, called the United States Embassy “a focus of sedition” and implied that it had been since the much publicized scandal involving the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation during this country's 1970 presidential elections.

The attack on Ambassador Davis took note of his previous post as Ambassador to Guatemala and attempted to link him and the United States Embassy there to a campaign to finance the rightist terrorist organization called Mano Blanco.

“Davis became famous in that country,” Ultima Hora said, “for offering blank checks to Guatemalan military men to harden even more their fascist line.”

This was the first direct attack against Ambassador Davis since he came here in 1971, replacing Ambassador Edward M. Korry, who is referred to in the I.T.T. document showing United States interest in the defeat of President Allende in the elections.

None of the articles in Ultima Hora carried firm accusations on Ambassador Davis's activities here but merely angry allusions.