The Americas

Blackouts persist in Venezuela; schools, businesses closed

Associated Press
Published | Updated

This Wednesday, March 27, 2019 photo shows the dark skyline at dawn in Caracas, Venezuela. Much of Venezuela's capital is without electricity. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Pedestrians walk past closed businesses in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 26, 2019. Much of Venezuela remains without electricity as a new power outage spread across the country. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

More power outages have hit Venezuela as the government struggles to restore electricity following the country's worst blackouts earlier this month.

The internet censorship monitor group Netblocks tweeted early Wednesday that a new disruption to the power grid had left 91 percent of the country offline, reversing a "partial recovery" since the latest blackouts started on Monday.

President Nicolas Maduro's government said schools and state offices and industries are closed Wednesday because of the outages.

Maduro accuses the United States and the Venezuelan opposition of sabotaging the country's decrepit power system. U.S. officials and opposition leader Juan Guaido say the accusation is an attempt to divert attention from the government's mismanagement over many years.