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Venezuela's capital Caracas and other regions face power outage


FILE - Partial view of the neighborhood Petare hill, March 10, 2019, during a massive power outage which has left Caracas and much of the country without communications, water and electricity.
FILE - Partial view of the neighborhood Petare hill, March 10, 2019, during a massive power outage which has left Caracas and much of the country without communications, water and electricity.

Venezuela's capital city Caracas and other regions of the country experienced a power outage early on Friday, the communication and information ministry confirmed.

The outage affected at least 13 regions, including Carabobo and Aragua, according to posts on social media and Reuters staff.

"We have been victims, once again of electrical sabotage," said Freddy Nanez, minister of the communication and information ministry, without giving further details.

He added that the electrical cabinet team is working to fully restore service.

Power cuts are not uncommon in Venezuela, although they are usually more localized.

On Tuesday, a series of smaller blackouts, which Nanez also blamed on sabotage, affected some states.

The last major outage was in 2019, when Venezuela suffered three national blackouts, some lasting as long as three days, which authorities attributed to attacks on the network - such as damaging power lines — by saboteurs and opponents of President Nicolas Maduro's government.

Several videos circulating on social media on Friday showed cities under a blackout. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the videos.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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