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Rubio Blames Nonexistent ‘German Dam’ Explosion for Venezuela Power Blackout

© Flickr / Gage SkidmoreSenator Marco Rubio has called for Congress to permanently extend of the government’s post-9/11 surveillance powers.
Senator Marco Rubio has called for Congress to permanently extend of the government’s post-9/11 surveillance powers. - Sputnik International
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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a vocal critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, tweeted that there was an explosion on the ‘German Dam’ – without realizing that ‘German Dam’ is the name of the journalist who reported the explosion.

Rubio tweeted on Sunday that as a result of the explosion “critically ill patients have died, the Caracas metro remains out of service & few if any flights have arrived at or departed from Caracas in over 20 hours.”

© Photo : Twitter screenshotMark Rubio confuses German Dam to journalist name
Mark Rubio confuses German Dam to journalist name - Sputnik International
Mark Rubio confuses German Dam to journalist name

The problem with Rubio's assertions is that, although there was a transformer explosion that took out large chunks of the power grid, pictures of which were posted in responses, there is in fact no "German Dam" in Venezuela. A confused Rubio appeared to have used the name of a South American journalist reporting on the outages as the actual reason for the blackout. 

German Dam, an experienced journalist, tweeted that a transformer had exploded in Bolívar, partially collapsing the Venezuelan electric grid.

 

The original Rubio tweet remains live on the Senator's feed, as part of a long thread about the blackouts in Venezuela. Power outages swept Venezuela on Thursday as national electricity supplier Corpoelec reported "sabotage" at Guri, a major hydroelectric power plant. Media sources subsequently reported power outages in 21 out of 23 Venezuelan states.

READ MORE: Maduro Says One Venezuelan Energy Facility Suffered Cyber Attack on Saturday

Maduro blamed the United States for waging an energy war against Caracas. Venezuelan Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez specifically named Rubio as a culprit, during a televised address to the nation.

Rubio responded to the allegation that he was to blame for the blackouts by responding, “I must have pressed the wrong thing on the "electronic attack" app I downloaded from Apple. My bad.”

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