Venezuela dealing with new power outage

BOGOTA, Colombia

A new power outage in Venezuela forced the South American country to shut schools and public and private sectors for 24 hours Tuesday.

Vice President Jorge Rodriguez announced that all work and educational activities will be halted as the nation deals with the problem that is affecting most of the capital of Caracas, as well as 15 other provinces including Aragua, Anzoategui, Miranda, Falcon, Merida, Tachira, Sucre and Carabobo.

Rodriguez said the government is working to solve the problem as soon as possible.

Electricity in the country was cut Monday at 1 p.m. local time (0500GMT) and Rodriguez said the interruption was caused by a new sabotage.

Venezuela’s self-declared interim president Juan Guaido claimed the outage was caused by a fire on high-tension line and accused government of not being able to provide “even electricity.”

On March 7, Venezuela was also plunged into darkness with power cuts hitting 21 out of 23 states.

President Nicolas Maduro and his government have termed the outage a "sabotage" amid a lingering political crisis in the country.

Venezuela has been rocked by protests since Jan. 10 when Maduro was sworn in for a second term following a vote boycotted by the opposition.

Tensions flared when opposition leader Guaido declared himself acting president Jan. 23 -- a move supported by the U.S. and many European and Latin American countries.

Turkey, Russia, China, Iran, Bolivia and Mexico have put their weight behind Maduro.

*Writing by Sena Guler