Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the deployment of an international commission of inquiry into the days of power blackouts in the country. In addition to the United Nations, he asked Russia, China, Iran and Cuba for support, said Maduro yesterday late in the evening on state television.
„These countries have great experience in countering cyber attacks,“ he said. The Commission will be chaired by Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez. The Attorney General’s Office would also be involved. Reuters reported that the Chinese government provided assistance to Venezuela to restore power.
Opposition sees cause in mismanagement
For the blackouts that began on Thursday, the Socialist leader again blamed a US hacker attack and opposition. The prosecution had previously launched an investigation into the president of Maduro’s defeated parliament, Juan Guaido. The opposition, however, sees the cause of the blackout as mismanagement and inadequate maintenance of assets in the troubled oil state.
In protest against the power outages, thousands of people took to the streets yesterday in Venezuela. Maduro, in contrast, declared in his speech the „victory in the power battle“. „Now it is time to consolidate this victory in the electric war, to turn the power grid into a safe, robust, stable and invulnerable system,“ he said.
