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A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 9 March 2019

Massive Venezuela power outage raises tensions amid crisis

By SCOTT SMITH woes are likely to increase
FABIOLA SANCHEZ as U.S. sanctions against its
CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA oil industry kick in.
Associated Press State-owned electricity op-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) erator Corpoelec blamed
— Hospitals struggled to the outage on an act of
get back-up generators “sabotage” at the Guri
running, businesses shut- Dam, one of the world’s
tered and families anxiously largest hydroelectric sta-
tried to contact loved ones tions and the cornerstone
amid Venezuela’s worst- of Venezuela’s electrical
ever power outage Friday, grid. Information Minister
raising tensions in a country Jorge Rodriguez described
already on edge from on- it as a “cyber” attack in-
going political turmoil. tended to derail the whole
Much of the nation of 31 system. He said electricity in
million people was still with- Venezuela’s eastern region
out electricity as the black- had been restored within
out stretched into a second hours.
day and patience began “What’s the intention?” he
to wear thin. said. “To submit the Ven-
“This has never happened ezuelan people to various
before,” a frustrated Orlan- days without electricity to
do Roa, 54, said, decrying Mothers and relatives wait outside of an intense care room for babies at a clinic, during a power attack, to mistreat, so that
President Nicolas Maduro’s outage in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, March 7, 2019. vital areas would be with-
administration for failing to Associated Press out power.”
maintain the electrical sys- mum unity patriots!” his mother. save on power. “How is it Pro-government officials
tem and letting qualified U.S. Secretary of State Mike “What impotence!” he la- possible for an oil coun- often blame outages on
engineers leave the coun- Pompeo shot back saying mented. try like ours to be without Venezuela’s opposition,
try. “This is the fault of the only Maduro was to blame. Netblocks, a non-govern- an emergency backup in accusing them of attack-
government.” “Maduro’s policies bring ment group based in Eu- place for these types of ing power substations with
Maduro ordered schools nothing but darkness,” rope that monitors internet situations?” she asked. “This Molotov cocktails, though
and all government entities Pompeo wrote on social censorship, said online con- is pathetic.” Venezuela’s they rarely provide any evi-
closed and told businesses media. “No food. No medi- nectivity data indicates electrical system was once dence. Guaido did a sur-
not to open to facilitate cine. Now, no power. Next, the outage is the largest the envy of Latin America vey of Caracas Friday to
work crews trying to restore no Maduro.” in recent record in Latin but it has fallen into dis- evaluate the impact of the
power. The outage comes as Ven- America. The observatory repair after years of poor blackout, blaming Maduro
The blackout was reported ezuela is in the throes of a warned Friday that some maintenance and misman- for the sorry state of affairs
to have hit 22 of 23 states, political struggle between of the remaining networks agement. High-ranking of- and looking to capitalize
striking during the peak of Maduro and opposition were starting to fall offline ficials have been accused on what some decried as
evening rush hour Thursday, leader Juan Guaido, the as generators and backups in U.S. court proceedings of a sign of Venezuela’s new-
sending thousands of peo- head of congress who de- began depleting and cell looting government money found status as a “failed
ple on long nighttime treks clared himself the nation’s towers shut down. earmarked for the electri- state” even though it sits
home through some of the rightful president in January The director of CODEVIDA, cal system. atop the world’s largest oil
world’s most violent streets. and is recognized by the a coalition of Venezuelan While intermittent outages reserves.
Until now, Caracas had United States and about 50 health advocacy groups, have become regular oc- “It’s clear who is respon-
been spared the worst of a other nations. reported that thousands of currences in Venezuela of sible for this disaster,” he
collapse in the nation’s grid Without power to charge dialysis patients were going late, rarely have so many said, renewing his call for
and the outage was still cell phones, normally hy- without treatment as a re- states simultaneously been Venezuelans to take to the
wreaking havoc more than per-active social media sult of the blackout. While without power for such an streets Saturday in protest.
18 hours after it began. was eerily quiet. Even state some hospitals were able extended period. “They keep making ex-
Venezuela’s socialist gov- TV — the government’s to rely on back-up power The government keeps cuses, they keep looking
ernment blamed the pow- main vehicle for handing sources, others were dark. home power bills excep- for scapegoats, when cor-
er failure on right-wing ex- down a political line to its At the maternity ward at tionally low — just a couple ruption, calamity are what
tremists taking orders from followers — went silent. the Avila Clinic in wealthy dollars a month — relying have caused this situation.”
the United States, includ- Those who managed to get eastern Caracas Thursday heavily on subsidies from Rubio, who has been driv-
ing Florida Republican Sen. a signal used the hashtag night, several mothers wept the Maduro administration, ing the Trump adminis-
Marco Rubio, and said they #SinLuz — meaning without as nurses held candles to which is under increasing fi- tration’s confrontational
were intent on causing light in English — to share monitor the vital signs of nancial duress. stance toward Maduro,
pandemonium for several images of cities throughout premature babies in incu- The nation is experiencing seemed to relish Rodri-
days but offered no proof. the country that on Friday bators. hyperinflation projected to guez’s accusations that he
“The electricity war de- resembled ghost towns. Zaida Rodriguez, 40, a car- reach a mind-boggling 10 was somehow to blame for
clared and directed by One user posted a video of diovascular technician, million percent this year, is the power crisis.
the imperialist United States a nurse manually pumping walked several miles to grappling with food and “My apologies to people of
against our people will be air into the lungs of an in- the private clinic where medical shortages, and Venezuela,” the Florida Re-
overcome!” President Nico- fant. Others posted photos she works only to be told has lost about 10 percent publican said in a message
las Maduro wrote on Twitter of long lines of cars queuing by bosses that she should of its population to migra- on Twitter. “I must have
in his only public comments up at gas stations in hopes leave because the facil- tion in the past few years pressed the wrong thing on
on the outage. “No one of getting fuel. A man an- ity would treat only urgent — including many with the ‘electronic attack’ app
can defeat the people of guished that he’d gone 17 cases and operate with valuable energy expertise. I downloaded from Apple.
Bolivar and Chavez. Maxi- hours without hearing from a skeletan staff in order to Venezuela’s economic My bad.”q