BFF-01 Maduro announces 30 days of electricity rationing in Venezuela

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VENEZUELA-POLITICS-ELECTRICITY

Maduro announces 30 days of electricity rationing in Venezuela

CARACAS, April 1, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro
announced 30 days of electricity rationing on Sunday, after his government
said it was reducing the length of the workday and keeping schools closed due
to devastating blackouts plaguing the country.

The measures are a stark admission by the government — which has sought to
blame repeated blackouts in March on sabotage — that there is not enough
electricity to go around, and that the power crisis is here to stay.

Speaking on state television, Maduro said he had approved “a 30-day plan”
to ration power, “with an emphasis on guaranteeing water service.”

Crippled infrastructure, little investment in the power grid and poor
maintenance have all contributed to electricity problem.

Add to that the country’s economic deep crisis, eye-popping inflation rate
and the “brain drain” of qualified personnel — some 25,000 people in the
electricity sector have left the country, part of the 2.7 million Venezuelans
who have emigrated since 2015 — and you have the makings of a crisis with no
end in sight.

Earlier on Sunday, authorities announced other measures as a result of the
electricity shortage.

“To achieve consistency in the provision of electricity, the Bolivarian
government decided to maintain the suspension of school activities and
establish a workday until 2:00 pm in public and private institutions,”
Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on state television.

With no electricity, pumping stations can’t work so water service is
limited. Street lights and traffic lights go dark, pumps at fuel stations
stand idle, and cell phone and internet service is non-existent.

“This is going to continue, the situation is very serious, there will be
more blackouts and rationing,” said Winton Cabas, president of the Venezuelan
association of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.

“The whole power grid is barely generating between 5,500 and 6,000
megawatts, when it has the capacity to generate 34,000 megawatts,” he told
AFP.

– Who is responsible? –

The Maduro government has blamed “terrorists” for alleged attacks that have
damaged the Guri hydroelectric power plant, which generates 80 percent of
Venezuela’s electricity.

The Guri plant, however, was already showing signs of trouble: back in
2010, then-president Hugo Chavez said that electricity would be rationed in
some Venezuelan states because water was low at the Guri dam due to a
drought.

Jose Aguilar, a Venezuelan consultant living in the United States, says
that the problems with the power grid run deep.

“Over the past 20 years, the infrastructure has been abused due to a lack
of maintenance and the postponing of upgrade plans,” he told AFP.

Add to that the “de-professionalization” of the sector after Chavez
nationalized the privately-run power company in 2007, which led to pro-
government loyalists taking positions as managers and engineers.

The blackouts have worsened the dire economic and living conditions in a
country that is witnessing a political showdown between Maduro and opposition
leader Juan Guaido, recognized as interim president by the United States and
some 50 other countries.

– Spreading protests –

Demonstrations by Venezuelans angry about the blackouts broke out Sunday in
Caracas. Some demos, according to protesters and human rights NGOs, were
attacked by “colectivos” — pro-government enforcers that the opposition
describe as armed paramilitary thugs.

Maduro has given the “colectivos” a green light to contain protests that he
describes as violent mobs aiming to oust him from power.

Joaquin Rodriguez, a 54-year-old lawyer, was among the protesters gathered
in Los Palos Grandes, a once-prosperous neighborhood that has endured
blackouts for more than a decade.

“Once again a nationwide blackout is affecting our quality of life,” he
told AFP.

“We don’t have water, we don’t have any light, we don’t have internet
access, our phones don’t work… we are even worse off than we could have
imagined.”

BSS/AFP/GMR/0803 hrs