CARACAS, August 31. /TASS/. Power supply, Internet access and cell phone service were almost entirely off for 12 hours in Venezuela; they have started to come back online by this point.

According to the El Nacional newspapers, the first report of power and communications outages appeared early on Friday. Total or partial outage took place in 23 states and in the capital district. Venezuelan authorities believe that such problems were caused by a sabotage by the opposition - in this case, in the light of the opposition’s allegations that the outcome of the recent presidential elections was falsified. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the power situation a "desperate raid of Fascism" and a "criminal attack," promising that the complication will be overcome.

On Friday, Venezuelan Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello said that the "network has started to come back online." Local residents also report that the situation comes back to normal.

According to El Nacional, power and communication outages have been rather frequent in Venezuela in the last decade. Local authorities blame them on the opposition, claiming that the opposition seeks to destabilize the situation in the country; however, the experts mainly see economic motives - in particular, the lack of investment in the energy sector.