Guaido urges Venezuelans to protest power outages

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has urged his supporters to protest and fight for the rights whenever they go without lights or water or gas or public transportation. Guaido told this to crowd gathered at the Casa Carlos Andres Perez, main headquarters of Acción Democrática party.

Caracas: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido told a group of supporters on Wednesday that 91 percent of the country was offline in Monday's blackouts, as the nation struggled to restore electricity following the country's worst blackouts earlier this month.

"Each time you go without lights or water or gas or public transportation, it's not the time to adapt. It's time to protest and demand our rights," he told the crowd gathered at the Casa Carlos Andres Perez, main headquarters of Acción Democrática party in Caracas.

President Nicolas Maduro accuses the United States and the Venezuelan opposition of sabotaging the country's decrepit power system.

Guaido rejected that claim, telling supporters at the outdoor rally that no one believed there were any cyber-attacks on Venezuela's electrical grid.

"Later they will say anything. A mango seed fell, a rat, anything," Guaido said.

US officials and Guaido say the accusation is an attempt to divert attention from the government's mismanagement over many years.

Guaido also urged Venezuelans to have confidence in themselves, telling them "It is we who are the ones responsible for getting out of this tragedy."