The lights went out across much of Venezuela, reviving fears of the blackouts that plunged the country into chaos a few months ago as the government once again accused opponents of sabotaging the nation's hydroelectric power system.
As night fell in Caracas many were wondering how long they would be left in the dark.
Almost three hours into the blackout authorities broke their silence and blamed an "electromagnetic attack" on a series of dams located in southern
Venezuela — the same culprit it attributed an almost week-long outage in March that left millions of Venezuelans without water or the ability to communicate with loved ones.