President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro said a "nontraditional war" without weapons has been waged against his country, which had faced a number of large power outages over the recent weeks.
“It is a nontraditional war against public services in order to make the country uncontrollable and come to power through chaos and violence,” Maduro said in an address broadcast by his Periscope channel on Thursday.
Maduro suggested that Venezuela was facing an attempted “electricity coup and a nontraditional war” conducted by the United States and the Venezuelan opposition.
The president added that the authorities have been resisting these overthrow attempts and were moving the country towards peace, stability and national unity.
Speaking live on national television on Thursday, Maduro called on Venezuelans to set up water storage hubs across the country to ensure there is enough water in case of new electricity outages.
“I am insisting that at this stage of fighting against imperialistic attacks on critical systems, all Venezuelans should save water and organize reserves on the level of communes,” Maduro noted, Sputnik reported.
The president also instructed a water tank factory to increase its output.
Moreover, Maduro suggested that Venezuela’s ministries should create special groups in WhatsApp messaging platform to communicate information to the public amid the attacks on the Venezuelan infrastructure.
In March, Venezuela suffered from several large blackouts caused by what the authorities called US attacks on the power grid. Washington has denied any involvement in the power failures.
The crisis in the energy industry erupted amid a political crisis in Venezuela. The turmoil began in January, when opposition leader Juan Guaido, backed by the US, proclaimed himself Venezuela’s interim president.