On Tuesday, a sweeping power failure left the largest cities in Venezuela without electricity, which snarled traffic, halted subway trains underground and mobilized police forces in Caracas (Venezuela’s capital) to thwart possible public disturbances.

The New York Times reports that, “government electricity officials gave different reasons for the blackout, which began at 4 p.m. and lasted more than two hours in parts of Caracas. Initially they said it was set off by peak electricity usage on a hot day, but later said a forest fire in Guarico, a state in north-central Venezuela, had caused the shutdown.”

11 of Venezuela’s 23 states were affected by the power failure. Zulia state, home of Venezuela’s main oil fields and Maracaibo, the nation’s second largest city, were among the hardest hit.

According to the NY Times, “President Hugo Chavez has asserted greater control over the electric industry, announcing last year the nationalization of two electric utilities controlled by investors from the United States, including Electridad de Caracas, a former unit of the AES Corporation of Arlington, Va.

To read the entire article from the New York Times, link here:

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