MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela suffers the fifth mass blackout of the month

Only 33% of the South American country had electricity service on Sunday morning and 15% was online

A new massive blackout was recorded this weekend in Venezuela after a nationwide interruption of electricity service this Friday, which was slowly restored in main cities as Caracas. However, a new relapse of the supply occurred on Saturday night, affecting 16 states of the country - more than half.

Only 33% of the South American country had electricity service on Sunday morning and 15% was online, according to Netblocks, a non-profit organization dedicated to tracking power outages or blackouts based on user data from Internet.

Update: A new power outage has impacted #Venezuela as of 13:20 PM UTC (9:20 AM VET); network data shows only 15% of country now online #SinLuz #Apagon #31Mar ⬇️https://t.co/WyLncHOQXM pic.twitter.com/8t4nc2G9c7

— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) 31 de marzo de 2019

In March alone, at least five major power interruptions have been reported.

Last Thursday, March 7, a national blackout left the country without electric service for at least five days. On Monday, March 24, the darkness returned until Wednesday.

The non-governmental organization Transparency Venezuela denounced on Friday the government officials who were in charge of the national electricity system and allegedly committed illegal acts during their managements.

The generalized cuts have affected all productive sectors of the country, already hit by a unstoppable inflation estimated to reach 10,000,000% in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

So far, only the oil industry has caused losses of about 200 million dollars a day.

For its part, the government of President Nicolás Maduro has not yet commented on the most recent interruption.