BOGOTA, March 10. /TASS/. Some member states of the Lima Group stated on Sunday that Nicolas Maduro’s administration is responsible for the problems with electric energy in the Bolivarian Republic. The document was signed by Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Chile.
"We rest responsibility for the failure of the Venezuelan energy system solely on [Nicolas] Maduro’s illegitimate regime," the Group said in a statement released by Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"This situation only proves the existence and the scale of the humanitarian crisis that Maduro’s regime refused to recognize," the member states said. The Lima Group also sated support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and the National Assembly.
On Thursday evening, Caracas and most Venezuelan states were left without electricity. These are 20 or 22 out of 23 states, according to the local media. Thus, almost the whole territory of the country had no electricity. It is the longest power outage within the capital residents’ memory.
The incident was reported caused by a sabotage at the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant in Bolivar State, which is the largest in the country. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro blamed the "American imperialism" for the incident. The US Department of State refuted these accusations.
On Friday morning the electricity supply improved, but deteriorated again on Saturday afternoon after a report of an explosion at the electric power station located on the outskirts of Ciudad Bolivar, the capital of Venezuela’s southeastern Bolivar State. According to the state-run energy company Corpoelec, the power supply in Caracas is about 40% restored now.