TOPSHOT - Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido attends a meeting with local leaders in Caracas, on March 14, 2019. - Venezuelans resumed work Thursday after a weeklong hiatus forced by an unprecedented nationwide blackout. PHOTO: AFP
Between the start of the blackout on March 7 and Thursday, "we are talking of 124 arrested for protesting" and "more than 200 other arrests for looting," the Foro Penal NGO's director, Alfredo Romero, told a news conference.
He said 'anarchy' reigned in Venezuela's second city of Maracaibo during the power outage, with "generalised looting."
A retailers' association said some 500 stores in that city were pillaged during the power cut.
Maduro wins as rivals call for new Venezuela elections
Power was mostly back to normal in Caracas since early this week, albeit with the frequent power dips that characterized the pre-blackout situation.
Maduro's government asserted Wednesday that electricity had been fully restored across the whole country, but some western regions still experienced a lack of power.
The prolonged outage notably disrupted supplies of drinking water, forcing residents to wait for water trucks or scoop up effluent from sewerage pipes.
Maduro blamed the blackout on US 'sabotage.' But experts said steadily degraded infrastructure and a brain drain of qualified engineers was more likely.
1730959638-0/trump-(19)1730959638-0-165x106.webp "article")
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ