Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, March 10, 2019. (Carlos Garcia/Reuters)

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó said Sunday that the 17 people who reportedly died as a result of the country’s electricity blackout were “murdered” by President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

“I can’t call it anything else, due to lack of electricity,” Guaidó told CNN. “Imagine if in your country, you wake to the news that there’s been four days without electricity because they steal from electricity plants and 17 people died. That’s murder.”


About 70 percent of Venezuela was plunged into darkness on Thursday and it remains unclear when much of the country, including the capital, Caracas, will get its electricity back. The blackout has resulted in looting and violent crime, and has left hospitals struggling to keep patients alive. The crisis comes as the impoverished country remains in turmoil and the opposition clashes with the Maduro regime’s forces.

Guaidó alleged to CNN that 16 states had zero power and six had partial power as of Sunday, and said the private sector has lost $400 million because of the blackout.

“You can say with all responsibility that Venezuela has already collapsed,” he said. “There is no service in the hospitals. These were the best hospitals in the country. If we are in the capital, what is it like kilometers inside Venezuela, where there hasn’t been or there has been very little gasoline with periodic cuts in electricity, without basic goods, with inefficient public transportation?”


Maduro has blamed the U.S. for the massive power outage, accusing America of launching a cyber attack on the country’s power grid. The U.S. has brushed off this claim, saying the regime’s “incompetence” is to blame for the disaster.


The U.S. and dozens of other countries recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

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