CYBER??!!-Widespread blackouts hit Venezuela | World news | theguardian.com

A power plant failure has knocked out electricity across a large part of Venezuela, interrupting a nationally televised presidential ceremony and forcing a suspension of subway and train services around the country.

The outage affected at least 14 of the country's 23 states and caused several hours of traffic jams, as well as darkening homes and offices, in the capital, Caracas, on Friday.

The plant, supplying electricity to Venezuela's central and western regions, failed in the early afternoon, said the electricity minister, Jesse Chacon. Power was mostly restored in Caracas by nightfall but remained out in other parts of the country, where power failures are more common.

The outage disrupted a televised celebration of journalists that President Nicolas Maduro was holding in the governmental palace in Caracas. The city's sidewalks filled up with pedestrians who overflowed into the traffic lanes.

Some middle-class neighbourhoods were without power for the afternoon and evening but Caracas's centre experienced only intermittent outages.

Officials prioritized Caracas as they restored power. The last time the capital lost power in March, electricity was not fully restored for 12 hours.

The country suffered major blackouts in 2012 and 2013. The administration blamed those power outages on sabotage, while opponents said they were the result of government incompetence.

The government has also occasionally pointed to wildlife, including gnawing iguanas and possums, as the culprits. On Friday inconvenienced Venezuelans posted iguanas on their social media profiles in frustration at the blackout.