The United States imposed sanctions against two Venezuela officials who allowed Blackauts

The United States imposed sanctions against the Deputy Minister of Finance of Venezuela, General Eastikio Jose Lugo Gomez and the former Minister of Electric capacities and the head of the National Corpoelec National Electric Corporation, Luis Alfredo Motta Dominges, the official website of the US State Department reports.

"The Venezuens suffered from more than 23860 cases of turning off electricity this year due to corruption and mismanagement of Nicholas Maduro and the persons associated with him. Corruption of the former Minister of Electric capacities and the head of the national electric corporation Corpoelec (Motta) and this Deputy Minister of Finance, Investments and Strategic Allians of the Ministry (Lugo) directly contributed to the deterioration and refusal of the Venezuela electrical system, ”the department said.

It is noted that the US sanctions are designed to "hold officials of the regime accountable for the suffering that they cause to the Venezuelan people."

“We will continue to use economic and diplomatic tools to support continuing democratic transformations in Venezuela. US sanctions are not constant and aimed at positive changes in behavior,” the American foreign policy said.

Also, the State Department once again announced his support from the opposition leader Venezuela Juan Guydo, who declared himself the president of the country, TASS reports. "The temporary President Juan Guydo and the democratically elected national assembly go peacefully and democratic means that the Venezuelans offer the best future. The United States support them and the people of Venezuela, demanding the restoration of democracy and return to economic prosperity and stability," the statement said.

The crisis in Venezuela worsened after on January 23, 2019 the leader of the opposition Juan Guydo, whose appointment to the post of parliament was announced two days earlier by Venezuela's Supreme Court, declared himself the acting president of the country. He was recognized by the United States as a temporary head of state, they were joined by Lima groups (with the exception of Mexico), the organization of American states and a number of European countries.

Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro called the incident a coup. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Salvador, Syria and Turkey spoke out in his support.

One of the brightest manifestations of the inability of the Nicholas Maduro regime to solve the socio-economic problems of the country was the Blackauts that took place in Venezuela during March. The largest power outage occurred on March 7 and affected Karakas and the rest of the Venezuela. Disconnects in electricity occurred in all 23 states of the country. According to the national electric company, the reason for the incident was the sabotage at the Simon Bolivar hydroelectric power station in Bolivar.

The losses of Venezuela due to the overwhelming for five days the accident amounted to $ 875 million in four days, experts calculated. This is almost equal to 1 percent of GDP.

In the future, power supply problems will cost the country $ 100 million per day, experts suggested. In addition, at least 15 children died at the Venezuelan City Hospital Maturin due to Blackout.

Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro first accused the incident “American imperialism”, and then announced attacks on the Venezuela energy system from the inside by the “enemies of Venezuela”, which meant representatives of the opposition.

The Army of Venezuela was reported to protect the country's energy system. The military protect power plants, and the air transmission lines are monitored from the air, said the Minister of Defense of the country Vladimir Padrino Lopez. However, in the fight against Blackauts, the army was powerless. On March 26, due to a new malfunction in Karakas, the metro stopped working . The electricity shutdown was affected by 21 states out of twenty -three. The authorities again explained what happened by sabotage.