Venezuela, blaming U.S. for six-day blackout, orders diplomats to leave

[webfact]

Venezuela, blaming U.S. for six-day blackout, orders diplomats to leave

By Vivian Sequera and Deisy Buitrago

 

A resident looks at a burnt electrical substation after a massive blackout in Caracas, Venezuela, March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

 

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela ordered American diplomats on Tuesday to leave within 72 hours after President Nicolas Maduro accused U.S. counterpart Donald Trump of cyber "sabotage" that plunged the South American country into its worst blackout on record.

 

"The presence on Venezuelan soil of these officials represents a risk for the peace, unity and stability of the country," the government said in a statement, after talks broke down over maintaining diplomatic ties between the two countries.

 

Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab said on Tuesday he was asking Venezuela's pro-Maduro Supreme Court to open an investigation into opposition leader Juan Guaido for participating in the alleged "sabotage."

 

Washington has taken the lead in recognising Guaido as Venezuela's rightful president after the 35-year-old congress chief declared himself interim president in January, calling Maduro's 2018 re-election a fraud. Most countries in Europe and Latin America have followed suit.

 

The United States has implemented a raft of sanctions to put pressure on Maduro, and the U.S. special envoy on Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said on Tuesday that Washington was prepared to impose "very significant" additional sanctions in the coming days against financial institutions deemed to be supporting Maduro's government.

 

Maduro, who retains control of the military and other state institutions as well as the backing of Russia and China, has blamed Washington for his nation's economic turmoil and denounced Guaido as a puppet of the United States.

 

With the power blackout in its sixth day, hospitals struggled to keep equipment running, food rotted in the tropical heat and exports from the country's main oil terminal were shut down.

 

Guaido joined a series of small opposition demonstrations around Caracas on Tuesday afternoon to protest the blackout, where he mocked the prosecutor's investigation.

 

"So that guy comes out and says we're guilty of a supposed sabotage when all of Venezuela knows, when the whole world knows, who the real saboteur is ... I'm going to call him out by name: Maduro!" he shouted.

 

The crowd in response shouted a profane insult, part of an increasingly common call-and-response game played in public places to express discontent with the socialist leader.

 

Power returned to many parts of the country on Tuesday, including some areas that had not had electricity since last Thursday, according to witnesses and social media.

 

But power was still out in parts of the capital of Caracas and the western region near the border with Colombia.

 

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said power had been restored in the "vast majority" of the country.

 

"We are on our way to consolidating the victory of the Venezuelan people over this attack," said Rodriguez. He added that the "electricity war continues," a sign that authorities may still be concerned about ongoing outages.

 

Julio Castro, of nongovernmental organisation Doctors for Health, said on Twitter on Monday night that 24 people had died in public hospitals since the start of the blackout. He has said that the blackout likely aggravated existing medical conditions but does not directly attribute any deaths to the outages.

 

The blackout was likely caused by a technical problem with transmission lines linking the Guri hydroelectric plant in southeastern Venezuela to the national power grid, experts told Reuters.

 

'TRUMP MOST RESPONSIBLE'

Maduro blamed Washington for organising what he said was a sophisticated cyber attack on Venezuela's hydroelectric power operations.

 

"Donald Trump is most responsible for the cyber attack on the Venezuelan electricity system," Maduro said in a broadcast from the Miraflores presidential palace on Monday night.

 

"This is a technology that only the government of the United States possesses."

 

The U.S. State Department had already announced that it would withdraw its remaining diplomatic staff from Venezuela this week.

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview on Tuesday with radio show Texas Standard that decisions regarding Venezuela had been affected by the combination of a rapidly deteriorating situation and U.S. diplomats being "in harm's way."

 

Maduro, elected in 2013 following the death of his political mentor Hugo Chavez, officially broke diplomatic relations with the United States on Jan. 23 when it recognised Guaido. Washington evacuated most of its diplomatic staff two days later.

 

Amid signs of a growing crackdown on media, the National Press Workers' Union said that prominent radio journalist Luis Carlos Diaz was arrested on Monday by intelligence agents, who raided his home in Caracas.

 

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Venezuelan authorities briefly detained American journalist Cody Weddle last week before ordering him to leave the country.

 

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Rosalba O'Brien)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-13

[zydeco]

The power outage likely made it convenient for Maduro's Cuban and Russian hit teams to assassinate opponents.

[car720]

The Chinese will get it all back up and running in no time and much better conditions.  For a few concessions of course.

[ExpatOilWorker]

Maduro better go back and do what he is good at, driving a bus.

[Jingthing]

Maduro better go back and do what he is good at, driving a bus.

He's spoiled for honest work.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[rgraham]

I guess I will scrap the April vacation to Caracas then.

[Benmart]

Maduro is reading from the well read, "Dictators Handbook", the chapter entitled, "What to say before being toppled and made to answer before your end is reached".

[Peasandmash]

 

[Srikcir]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Venezuela ordered American diplomats on Tuesday to leave within 72 hours after President Nicolas Maduro accused U.S. counterpart Donald Trump of cyber "sabotage" that plunged the South American country into its worst blackout on record.

Versus:

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pulled remaining US diplomats from the country and hinted that other, perhaps more muscular, measures are under consideration.
• The decision to extract all US diplomats "reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of US diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on US policy,"

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/12/politics/venezuela-pompeo-constraint/index.html

Is this a "Who came first, the chicken or the egg" event?

Maduro gets word of US pullout and orders the US out; thus Maduro tries to project control.

[A1Str8]

And they are right.

[55Jay]

Quote

Power outages are common in Venezuela, which has struggled to maintain its electrical grid amid a worsening economic crisis.

Quote

"This is not the first time this has happened," Valdez said. This happened a month ago when we had the same problem."

Quote

Government officials routinely blame outages in Venezuela on "sabotage" by the opposition.

https://www.elp.com/articles/2017/12/transmission-link-breaks-causing-outage-in-caracas-venezuela.html

Edited March 13, 2019 by 55Jay

[Sydebolle]

Lets wait and see, the last chapter has not been published yet ...........

The Chinese will take over in a much more smooth and elegant way, no smoke, no fire, no big stuff. In 5 - 10 years from now some people in Washington DC will be poking noses and wonder, what went wrong in Venezuela .........

Stay tuned! 

[quandow]

John Perkins was one of those diplomats years ago. If you really want to understand what's happening in Venezuela, read some of his publications. Frankly, I'm surprised the CIA hasn't "suicided" him by now.

[Cryingdick]

Even Venezuela has learned to blame trump.

[Lucius verus]

Why is everyone on tvf lying down with the media?

John Bolton admitted its all about the oil reserves knowing there would be no backlash about his comments.

USA has been targeting Venezuela for decades. Guaido is a Washington stooge educated in DC and tutored by IMF WorldBank cronies. Many Venezuelans have never heard of him.

The economy is mostly stuffed due to US sanctions and interference.

The media has been totally house trained.  Ask Cheney,Rumsfeld Rice,Bolton or Pompeo.

 

Edited March 14, 2019 by Lucius verus

[mokwit]

16 hours ago, rgraham said:

I guess I will scrap the April vacation to Caracas then.

I am sure there are websites out there with it listed as one of their top 10 retirement destinations.

[the guest]

All that oil, and now blackouts, am I missing something here?

[Nyezhov]

1 hour ago, Lucius verus said:

Why is everyone on tvf lying down with the media?

John Bolton admitted its all about the oil reserves knowing there would be no backlash about his comments.

USA has been targeting Venezuela for decades. Guaido is a Washington stooge educated in DC and tutored by IMF WorldBank cronies. Many Venezuelans have never heard of him.

The economy is mostly stuffed due to US sanctions and interference.

The media has been totally house trained.  Ask Cheney,Rumsfeld Rice,Bolton or Pompeo.

 

Exactly dude. If it wasnt for the USA, the world would be a better place, well on the road to the socialist heaven the imperialist mad dogs of USA capitalism been blocking since 1917. The world needs to stand with socialist Venezuela in its fight against the blood sucking capitalists who seek to destroy it! 

[Credo]

13 hours ago, Lucius verus said:

Why is everyone on tvf lying down with the media?

John Bolton admitted its all about the oil reserves knowing there would be no backlash about his comments.

USA has been targeting Venezuela for decades. Guaido is a Washington stooge educated in DC and tutored by IMF WorldBank cronies. Many Venezuelans have never heard of him.

The economy is mostly stuffed due to US sanctions and interference.

The media has been totally house trained.  Ask Cheney,Rumsfeld Rice,Bolton or Pompeo.

 

There is no doubt that US interference in Venezuela has not helped the country.   I just don't think it is the cause of all the problems as some would like to have us believe.  It's horribly mismanaged and no country with the oil reserves of Venezuela has any excuse for the deplorable situation of the general population.   They can sell/trade oil with a vast array of countries and easily bypass any sanctions -- China just being one.   

[farq]

On 3/13/2019 at 6:18 PM, Benmart said:

Maduro is reading from the well read, "Dictators Handbook", the chapter entitled, "What to say before being toppled and made to answer before your end is reached".

Pompeo, Bolton, et al working from the CIA coup and regime change workbook! Still attempting to overthrow a legitimate government to install their puppet Guido!

[GinBoy2]

On 3/13/2019 at 9:11 PM, Lucius verus said:

Why is everyone on tvf lying down with the media?

John Bolton admitted its all about the oil reserves knowing there would be no backlash about his comments.

USA has been targeting Venezuela for decades. Guaido is a Washington stooge educated in DC and tutored by IMF WorldBank cronies. Many Venezuelans have never heard of him.

The economy is mostly stuffed due to US sanctions and interference.

The media has been totally house trained.  Ask Cheney,Rumsfeld Rice,Bolton or Pompeo.

 

Problem is, many seem to like to invent 'facts'.

 

There were no US economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela until January this year. Travel restrictions, Yes, but economic Nada.

 

Sorry to have to tell you this, even with the US's checkered history of interference in Latin America, this one is all of their own making