Venezuelan Minister declares Venezuela’s Blackout may be caused by cyberattack carried by US

Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez blamed US cyberattack for Venezuela’s blackout.

Last week, Venezuela had suffered a major blackout and Nicolas Maduro immediately blamed on opposition “sabotage” of a hydroelectric dam.

The power outage hit 22 of 23 states of the country and also the capital Caracas went in the dark.

On Saturday, Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez declared that the blackout has been caused by a cyberattack against the Guri hydroelectric power plant. The plant provides over 70 percent of the nation’s electricity.

“They [the US] carried out a cyberattack on [Guri’s] automatic control system. Everything shows that it is a multiformat and violent attack against all of Venezuela”, Rodriguez told the country’s state television.

Rodrigues claimed the power outage could have been caused by a cyber attack carried out by the US, he will show the proof in the next days during a visit of a delegation headed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

“We will submit a complaint to her in order for the world to respect human rights in Venezuela”

The US State Secretary Mike Pompeo denied via Tweet that the US Government had a role in Venezuela’s blackout, and blamed “the Maduro regime’s incompetence” for the incident.

The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. It’s not because of Colombia. It’s not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime’s incompetence.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) March 8, 2019

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Venezuela’s blackout, hacking)

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