US behind recent blackout in Venezuela: Maduro

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says Washington, “desperate” over its defeats, is resorting to acts of sabotage against the country’s power system, including a “high-tech electromagnetic” attack that resulted in a massive power cut Monday.

Caracas and other parts of Venezuela were hit by a massive power cut on Monday, a few months after a similar nationwide blackout, which Maduro blamed on Washington as well.

The Monday blackout was caused by a "high-tech electromagnetic attack,” Maduro said Wednesday while addressing the opening of military exercises.

Sabotage at a hydroelectric plant that provides 80 percent of the country's power has caused the outage, Maduro suggested, adding that the electricity system has suffered "dozens of attacks" over the last four months.

"The US imperialism is desperate because of its defeats in Venezuela," Maduro said in the speech carried on radio and television, pinning the blame for the outages on the US government.

The Monday blackout reportedly left chaos on the streets of the capital as traffic lights lost power, and the metro stopped running, forcing many people to walk home from work.

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