More power outages hit the crisis have hit South American nation today after the worst blackouts earlier this month
MILLIONS of Venezuelans woke up without electricity for the second day in a row after a nationwide cut in the power supply.
Residents today were forced to scramble for food and water as businesses closed and school was cancelled in the second major blackout this month.
Power went out in much of the country yesterday afternoon, less than two weeks after electricity was restored following the worst blackout in Venezuela's history.
Electricity had returned to about half the oil rich country's 24 states last night, but went out again at dawn.
Venezuela has been crippled by months of unrest as protesters hit the streets claiming hard-left dictator Nicolas Maduro's re-election last year was rigged.
Three million refugees have fled the chaos of 800,000 per cent inflation, shortages of food and medicine, and pollution so bad water taps run black with oil.
While blackouts have long been common in the OPEC member nation, particularly outside of capital Caracas, their increasing frequency and severity have left residents concerned that intermittent power may be the new normal.
Julio Barrios, 60, an accountant in Caracas who was looking for open stores to buy food or ice, said: "I think this is going to be worse than the first blackout.
"A lot of people want to work but there's no transportation, and if there's nobody working the country will be paralysed."
In the western agriculture-heavy state of Tachira, more than 100,000 liters (26,000 gallons) of milk spoiled after 40 hours without electricity for refrigeration, according to Leonardo Figueroa, the head of the state ranchers' association.
Meanwhile Venezuela's Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on state television that a transmission line from the Guri hydroelectric dam had experienced "a failure" about 5am today but that power had since been restored to "a large portion of the capital".
Mr Rodriguez said: "We will not rest until the national electrical system has been sufficiently restored.”
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