A massive blackout plunged most of Colombia into darkness today, halting trading on the Bogota stock exchange and turning congested city traffic into gridlock.

The blackout is blamed on a fault at a hydroelectric power plant near the southern city of Pasto. It remains unclear whether the fault was accidental or caused by the FARC, who have a heavy guerrilla presence in the region.

The blackout affected all the major cities of Colombia from the Ecuadorian border to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. The eastern border region of Colombia was not affected, as electricity there is imported from a hydro scheme in western Venezuela.

The power went out roughly around 10am local time. Although official reports claim power was restored by 12noon, power even now remains sporadic throughout the country, as power is restored city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood.

For more coverage, see the Associated Press or Reuters. For some especially bad reporting, see the BBC, who report the outage affected only southern Colombia.