Venezuela seeks to restore power amid looting as China offers help
President Nicolas Maduro blames US sabotage for the blackout in the west of the country
Caracas — President Nicolas Maduro’s government scrambled on Wednesday to return power to western Venezuela following heavy looting in the second-largest city, while China offered to help the South American nation end its worst blackout on record. Power had returned to many parts of Venezuela after a nationwide outage last week that Maduro’s governing Socialist Party blamed on an act of US sabotage, though it had not fully reached the western state of Zulia. Looters smashed shop windows and made off with merchandise from more than 300 businesses across the state, located along the border with Colombia, the Zulia chapter of business organisation Fedecamaras said. “This has truly been a tragedy,” opposition legislator Nora Bracho, who represents Zulia in the National Assembly, said on Wednesday. “Not having power is already a burden with the temperature at 104 degrees [40°C]. In addition, there’s no potable water and no food,” Bracho said. The country’s top food company, Empresas Pola...
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