Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
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GENERAL

The Claim

An iguana caused a power outage affecting the state of Anzoátegui, Venezuela.

The Short Version

The claim is rooted in a real April 2010 incident in which Venezuela's state electricity company, Corpoelec, blamed an iguana for a power outage in Anzoátegui — but it overstates both the certainty and the scope. No independent source verified the iguana as the actual cause; the attribution is widely characterized as political scapegoating for systemic grid failures. The documented outage affected "10 sectors," not the entire state, making the unqualified phrasing materially misleading.

Caveats

  • The claim conflates official government attribution ('Corpoelec blamed an iguana') with independently verified causation — no technical or independent investigation confirmed the iguana was the actual cause.
  • The best contemporaneous source describes an outage affecting '10 sectors' of Anzoátegui, not the entire state, making the claim's geographic scope an overstatement.
  • Multiple sources frame the 'iguana' explanation as part of a broader pattern of Venezuelan officials using animal scapegoats to deflect from systemic electrical infrastructure failures.

The Receipts

  1. Venezuela: entre la iguana y el sol

    El Nacional

  2. Apagón en Venezuela: cómo en 10 años se fue arruinando el sistema eléctrico hasta llegar al colapso que agrava la crisis de Maduro

    El Líbero

  3. UNA IGUANA DEJA A OSCURAS 10 SECTORES DE ANZOÁTEGUI

    Mundo Inso

  4. De iguanas a Colombia: las excusas de Motta para tapar la crisis eléctrica

    El Estímulo

  5. 37 delincuentes abatidos en enfrentamientos durante el ... - YouTube

    YouTube

  6. Los animales de la revolución

    La Gran Aldea

  7. RABIPELADOS E IGUANAS: LA ESTAFA DE LOS APAGONES

    YouTube - Pastillas de Memoria

Filed Under

AnzoáteguiVenezuela

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