CARACAS, Venezuela -- Thousands of opposition supporters marched to central Caracas on Saturday, defying a government ban on rallies in the Venezuelan capital's core and testing a heavy police presence as the country struggled to emerge from its worst blackout in recent memory.
Clashes between police and protesters were reported early in the day, but a cordon of officers stepped aside to allow the demonstrators to rally and hear from opposition leader Juan Guaido.
"We have to conquer public spaces in a peaceful manner," Guaido, standing atop a car, declared through a megaphone. "We have to prepare ourselves for very tough times."
Power was intermittent Saturday in Caracas, two days after the country went dark, and it remained off in large portions of the country's west.
An explosion occurred at a power station Saturday in Bolivar state, according to media outlets. Video posted on social media showed fire and smoke billowing from the site. Venezuelan authorities have not commented.
Netblocks, a nongovernmental group based in Europe that monitors Internet censorship, said Saturday that the second power failure had knocked out almost all of Venezuela's telecommunications infrastructure.
State utility workers say it will take days to fully restore the national grid.
Opposition leaders have staged rallies for weeks in an effort to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election they say was rigged and whose policies they claim have pushed the country to economic ruin.
The problems caused by the blackout -- a loss of communication and public transportation -- had complicated the opposition's efforts to organize Saturday's protests. But its leaders were jubilant at the result: a series of demonstrations across the country that drew thousands of supporters and only limited response from authorities.
One group of opposition supporters blocked the main highway in the capital, but National Guardsmen sent to confront the demonstrators made no attempt to dislodge them.
"This is one of the biggest victories of our strategy and organization," said Carlos Paparoni, an opposition leader. "To all the policemen and guards we say: Our fight is not against you. They have also been without electricity. Their food is also rotting in their fridges."
Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of the National Assembly, said he anticipated more government efforts to sideline and intimidate the opposition. However, Maduro's government has not moved directly against Guaido since he returned Monday to Venezuela from a Latin American tour.
He returned after secretly crossing the border into Colombia on Feb. 22 to oversee a delivery of aid provided by the U.S. The effort failed and sparked fighting at border crossings.
Guaido earlier speculated that Maduro was effectively ignoring him in an attempt to sap the energy of the opposition, whose hopes of ousting the government have so far been stymied.
While Guaido has appealed to the armed forces to recognize him as the rightful head of state, only hundreds out of the thousands of Venezuelan soldiers have deserted Maduro's regime. Over the past week, he's focused on calling for partial strikes backed by unions representing some of Venezuela's estimated 4.5 million public administration workers.
He said he planned to tour Venezuela to seek support and lay the groundwork for a large rally in Caracas.
The nationwide power failure has intensified pressure on Maduro, who appeared in public Saturday for the first time since a problem at Venezuela's main hydropower plant Thursday afternoon plunged the country into darkness. Backup generators at upmarket hotels, which have become sanctuaries for Caracas' affluent, had begun running out of fuel by Saturday.
A pro-government rally in Caracas on Saturday drew a smaller crowd. Maduro tweeted his appreciation with a video that cut together images of his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez, and celebrating crowds.
He also blamed U.S. intervention for the unrest.
"Today, when the empire of the U.S., in its desperation to grab our natural resources, intensifies its brutal aggression against the fatherland," Maduro said, "we stand firm to defend our land and cry with force: Yankee go home! We are anti-imperialist!"
He later appeared at the pro-government rally, declaring, "Here I am, facing my responsibilities."
Many of his supporters wore red, the color associated with the socialist government of Chavez. One woman told state television network Telesur that the rallygoers were "defending with blood our revolution."
Maduro and his ministers have blamed the blackout on sabotage, without providing evidence, and have said the United States was behind it.
Critics have said it was the result of years of mismanagement and underinvestment.
"I'm here because I can't take it anymore," said Maria Elena Jimenez, a retiree draped in a Venezuelan flag who turned out for the opposition rally in Caracas. Venezuela's economic crisis, she said, had broken her family apart: Her daughter left the country and her brother was killed in a robbery outside his house last year.
Crying, Jimenez asked, "How am I going to stay in my house when my country has touched the bottom?"
The blackout has devastated scarce food supplies and threatened the lives of thousands of hospital patients. Opposition leaders claimed that 79 patients across the country had died because of the blackout, although that figure could not be independently corroborated. In the capital, people lined up outside food stores and gasoline stations to try to restock supplies and fuel.
On Saturday, public transit remained stalled and most businesses were closed. The international airport near Caracas, the country's largest, suspended flights.
Economists and rights groups say it will take weeks to take the full stock of the economic and human cost of the blackout. But deprivation was on the minds of opposition protesters Saturday.
"I'm here to show my indignation and my exhaustion," said Belkis Pernalete, a psychologist who marched in the central city of Valencia. She said the blackout had forced her family to eat its entire supply of frozen food.
Still, Pernalete said, she was among the lucky ones: She had food to eat.
Information for this article was contributed by Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen Herrera of The New York Times; by Christopher Torchia, Scott Smith and Fabiola Sanchez of The Associated Press; and by Alex Vasquez, Andrew Rosati and Patricia Laya of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 03/10/2019