Venezuela experiences a nation-wide blackout on Friday amid one of the largest power outages in years, raising tensions in a country already on edge from ongoing political turmoil.
President Nicolas Maduro ordered schools and all government entities closed and told businesses not to open to facilitate work crews trying to restore power.
The blackout hit 22 of 23 states by some accounts. It struck the capital Caracas, which until Friday has been spared the worst of a collapse in the nation’s grid, at the peak of the evening rush hour on Thursday and was still wreaking havoc more than 14 hours later.
Thousands of commuters flooded into the streets because subway service was stopped. A snarl of cars jammed the streets amid confusion generated by blackened stoplights. Others had to walk long distances to get home.
At the darkened maternity ward at the Avila Clinic in wealthy eastern Caracas, several mothers cried as nurses holding candles monitored the vital signs of premature babies in incubators after backup generators shut off.
Venezuela’s socialist government blasted the outage as an “electrical war” directed by the United States. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said right-wing extremists intent on causing pandemonium in Venezuela and taking orders from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio were behind the blackout, although he offered no proof.