Laht.com: A small opposition party has said that Venezuela's new Minister of Electricity has been guilty of stealing power amid a crisis that has caused prolonged blackouts across the Andean nation. A residence belonging to Minister Angel Rodriguez is being supplied with electricity via an illegal connection from a power pole, the MAS party said.

The residence is located in Puerto La Cruz, a city in the western state of Anzoategui.

The secretary of the MAS party in Anzoategui, Richard Casanova, called the power theft "unusual" in light of Rodriguez' statements urging Venezuelans "to accept rationing and to conserve electricity."

Rodriguez was sworn-in Tuesday as Venezuela's first minister of Electric Energy, a post President Hugo Chavez created a few weeks ago to address the oil-rich country's power crisis. "With what moral authority will President Chavez demand that the country save energy, if his minister for the sector steals power," Casanova said at a press conference.

Chavez blames the crisis on "waste," on increased consumption accompanying economic growth and on the government's failure to build new power plants quickly enough.

• The day he installed Rodriguez as minister, Chavez ordered all government entities to cut electricity use by 20% and announced plans for a new rate structure to reward customers who use less power and penalize the profligate.

But the head of the Fetraelec union representing electrical workers, Angel Navas, told the press that nearly half of the 4.6 million household customers lack meters to measure how much power they are using.

While El Universal newspaper cited a report showing that the national electric grid experiences leakage of up to 30%, with much of that attributable to theft of power.

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