Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 13 February 2018

Brazil president promises funds to address Venezuelan influx

SAO PAULO (AP) — mer interrupted his Carni-
Brazil’s president promised val holiday to fly to Roraima
Monday to do whatever it on Monday and promised
takes, including sending all a federal task force that
necessary funds, to help a would work with the state
northern state cope with to address the problems.
an influx of Venezuelans “I will not rest until we have
fleeing hunger and unrest. solved the problems of
Tens of thousands of people Roraima,” Temer said at a
have poured into Roraima meeting with the governor
state in recent years from and various state and fed-
Venezuela, as the govern- eral officials. “All necessary
ment there has moved to resources will be sent to
consolidate power and solve this Venezuelan ques-
the nation’s economy has tion.” Temer said some mi-
entered a tailspin. The in- grants could be moved to
flux has strained services other states but that Brazil
and caused tensions, and would not turn its back on
Brazil’s President Michel Temer speaks in Brasilia, Brazil. Temer promised Monday to do whatever state officials have been those fleeing misery. De-
it takes to help a northern state cope with an influx of Venezuelans fleeing hunger and unrest. increasingly clamoring for fense Minister Raul Jung-
(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) help. President Michel Te- mann later added that the
armed forces would set
Puerto Rico: up a field hospital at the
border and work with lo-
Officials say power back to most after blackout cal authorities to build tri-
age centers, according to
the G1 news portal. In the
By DANICA COTO “They’ll be working the dark after the Catego- the largest restructuring of capital of Boa Vista alone,
Associated Press throughout today to fully ry 4 storm destroyed two- a public entity in U.S. his- officials estimate there are
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) restore service,” he said, thirds of the island’s power tory. One week after his some 40,000 Venezuelans
— Officials with Puerto Ri- adding that authorities are distribution system and announcement, a federal — making up about 10
co’s power company said investigating what caused caused up to an estimated control board overseeing percent of the city’s popu-
Monday that they have re- the fire. Union leader Angel $94 billion in damage. the island’s finances asked lation — and many are liv-
stored power to most cus- Figueroa said in a phone The blast also illustrated that a judge authorize a ing in the streets. There are
tomers who were hit by a interview that a breaker the challenges of restor- loan of up to $1.3 billion concerns that the migrants
blackout overnight after a normally would have pre- ing a power grid that was so the power company are taking jobs away from
fire at a substation, a set- vented the incident, but already crumbling be- can keep operating. The Brazilians in an already
back that added to the that it’s too early to say if fore it was devastated by board said the company lackluster economy. Last
U.S. territory’s struggle to re- the problem was due to the storm. In many cases, could see an estimated week, a man set fire to two
cover from Hurricane Maria mechanical failure or lack power workers are repair- $1.2 billion loss in revenue residences where Venezu-
and years of deteriorating of maintenance amid an ing equipment that should in the first six months after elans were living, injuring
infrastructure. 11-year recession. “It’s very have long been replaced Hurricane Maria. Board five people. The govern-
Two power plants that were strange what happened,” but remained online due to president Jose Carrion said ment of Roraima present-
knocked offline by the fire he said. Justo Gonzalez, the power authority’s long Monday at a Puerto Rico ed federal officials with a
were repaired by dawn, the power company’s ex- financial crisis. The state- investment summit that the list of demands last week,
while crews were still trying ecutive director, said in a owned power company power company has been and Temer’s administration
to repair two substations, statement that replacing is worth roughly $4 billion, bankrupted by administra- agreed to double the fed-
power company spokes- the damaged equipment carries $9 billion in debt and tors and abused by corrup- eral security forces at the
man Geraldo Quinones will take up to 10 days and has long been criticized for tion, and that privatization border to 200. q
told The Associated Press. cost some $150,000, but political patronage and is needed even when pow-
Power had returned to that no power customers inefficiency. It also has suf- er is fully restored.
Puerto Rico’s largest public will be affected by ongo- fered frequent blackouts, “The same inefficiencies
hospital and its main inter- ing repairs. including an island-wide that have dragged the util-
national airport. The outage adds to the outage in September 2016. ity for decades remain,”
Quinones said he could not woes of an island still strug- Puerto Rico’s governor an- he said. “Of all the reali-
provide any numbers on gling to fully restore power nounced last month that ties (hurricanes) Irma and
how many customers re- more than five months af- he plans to privatize the Maria confronted us with,
mained without power as a ter Hurricane Maria started company, which relies on without a doubt the most
result of Sunday’s outage, the longest blackout in U.S. infrastructure nearly three evident is that Puerto Rico’s
which affected the island’s history. More than 400,000 times older than the indus- energy system does not
northern region. power customers remain in try average. It would be work.”q