DISINFO: US behind South America power failure
SUMMARY
US cyber attacks are the reason behind wide-scale power cuts in three South American countries as training for hitting Russia’s energy infrastructure.
RESPONSE
This claim is supported by no evidence. Whereas a massive power outage has indeed taken place in several Latin American countries, the reason behind it is yet to be established. The Argentinian president Mauricio Macri promised in a tweet published on June 16 that the case will be thoroughly investigated. The Guardian reported that Argentina’s energy secretariat blamed the blackout on a failure in the transmission of electricity from the Yacyretá hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River. He also added that the reason for the breakdown was not immediately clear. The Argentinian energy secretary, Gustavo Lopetegui, said that it could take up to two weeks to understand exactly why this had happened and who might be to blame. This is reminiscent of other unsubstantiated claims that the Venezuela blackouts that took place last March were the making of the United States and the West. For the Venezuela blackouts claims, see here.