BFF-06 New blackout hits swaths of Venezuela including Caracas

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ZCZC

BFF-06

VENEZUELA-POLITICS-ELECTRICITY

New blackout hits swaths of Venezuela including Caracas

CARACAS, March 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A new blackout hit many regions in
Venezuela including much of Caracas on Monday, sowing alarm two weeks after a
nationwide outage that paralyzed the country.

The power cut in the capital occurred at 1:28 pm (1720 GMT) and knocked out
electricity in the city center.

Cellphone signals were also disrupted and television was blanked out. Shops
hastily lowered shutters, fearing looters.

A Venezuelan newspaper reported that the power was out at Venezuela’s main
international airport outside Caracas.

President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage on an “attack”
targeting the country’s main hydroelectric plant Guri, which supplies power
to 80 percent of Venezuelans.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez told state television that the
opposition was responsible, claiming it “wants to plunge the population into
profound unease.”

Juan Guaido, the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s interim
president by the US and many of its allies, countered on Twitter that
Maduro’s government “uses these moments to disinform and create anxiety.”

He said “at least 17” of the country’s 23 states were affected, as well as
much of the capital district covering Caracas, retweeting a graphic by web
monitoring organization NetBlocks showing the internet down for 57 percent of
Venezuela.

Anxious Twitter users who were online said several big cities in the west
of the country including Barquisimeto, Maracaibo and Barinas were impacted.

“Not another blackout, no God, no,” tweeted Flore Melero, a 29-year-old
resident in the town of Ocumare del Tuy southeast of Caracas.

“Sitting in the office, without power but with a generator, wondering ‘How
long will this new blackout last?’ ‘Do I have enough water at home?’ ‘What
about the meat and chicken in the freezer?'” tweeted a Caracas resident,
Andres Betancourt.

Their comments summed up the panic and concerns that have lingered since
the last blackout, which started March 7 and lasted a week.

During that blackout, more than a dozen patients in hospitals died, public
transport came to a halt, production slowed in the vital oil sector and water
supplies were interrupted, forcing citizens to turn to sewage outflows and
polluted water sources.

Maduro also blamed the previous outage on a cyberattack on the Guri plant,
accusing the United States. He went on to order the creation of a new
military unit to protect basic installations.

Observers at the time said that while a US attack was possible, it was
unlikely. They said years of underinvestment, poor management and corruption
was the likely culprit, and they predicted more power cuts would follow.

– Citizens frustrated –

According to a study by the opposition-ruled legislature and the medical
group Medicos por la Salud, around half of Venezuela’s hospitals have
generators. In the last blackout, however, many did not work or were
insufficient for the needs of intensive-care patients, neonatal wards and
dialysis patients.

Monday’s blackout also hit the National Assembly building, forcing
occupants to exit in the dark using stairs.

In the streets of Caracas, anxiety was evident as residents worked out how
to return home without a working subway network and few, overcrammed buses.

“I’m wondering how to get home because there’s no metro. I live in the
center and it takes me two hours. I move slowly,” said Ana Gonzalez, a frail
64-year-old who was closing up the cleaning products shop where she worked.

For others, frustration and anger bubbled over, adding to a sense of
powerlessness created by years of economic crisis that has made food and
medicine scarce and prompted an exodus of more than 2.7 million Venezuelans
since 2015.

“Here, nobody tells the truth. The media don’t tell the truth. And we’re
prevented from doing our work,” said Yoan, an electrician wiring up a frozen
yogurt shop

Rafael, working in a printing shop where all the machines had come to a
stop, accused the government of “not doing repairs” to the power grid.

“They give so many warnings about the network being damaged and they do
nothing,” he said.

rmb/oh

A new blackout hit many regions in Venezuela including much of Caracas on
Monday, sowing alarm two weeks after a nationwide outage that paralyzed the
country.

The power cut in the capital occurred at 1:28 pm (1720 GMT) and knocked out
electricity in the city center.

Cellphone signals were also disrupted and television was blanked out. Shops
hastily lowered shutters, fearing looters.

A Venezuelan newspaper reported that the power was out at Venezuela’s main
international airport outside Caracas.

President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage on an “attack”
targeting the country’s main hydroelectric plant Guri, which supplies power
to 80 percent of Venezuelans.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez told state television that the
opposition was responsible, claiming it “wants to plunge the population into
profound unease.”

Juan Guaido, the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s interim
president by the US and many of its allies, countered on Twitter that
Maduro’s government “uses these moments to disinform and create anxiety.”

He said “at least 17” of the country’s 23 states were affected, as well as
much of the capital district covering Caracas, retweeting a graphic by web
monitoring organization NetBlocks showing the internet down for 57 percent of
Venezuela.

Anxious Twitter users who were online said several big cities in the west
of the country including Barquisimeto, Maracaibo and Barinas were impacted.

“Not another blackout, no God, no,” tweeted Flore Melero, a 29-year-old
resident in the town of Ocumare del Tuy southeast of Caracas.

“Sitting in the office, without power but with a generator, wondering ‘How
long will this new blackout last?’ ‘Do I have enough water at home?’ ‘What
about the meat and chicken in the freezer?'” tweeted a Caracas resident,
Andres Betancourt.

Their comments summed up the panic and concerns that have lingered since
the last blackout, which started March 7 and lasted a week.

During that blackout, more than a dozen patients in hospitals died, public
transport came to a halt, production slowed in the vital oil sector and water
supplies were interrupted, forcing citizens to turn to sewage outflows and
polluted water sources.

Maduro also blamed the previous outage on a cyberattack on the Guri plant,
accusing the United States. He went on to order the creation of a new
military unit to protect basic installations.

Observers at the time said that while a US attack was possible, it was
unlikely. They said years of underinvestment, poor management and corruption
was the likely culprit, and they predicted more power cuts would follow.

– Citizens frustrated –

According to a study by the opposition-ruled legislature and the medical
group Medicos por la Salud, around half of Venezuela’s hospitals have
generators. In the last blackout, however, many did not work or were
insufficient for the needs of intensive-care patients, neonatal wards and
dialysis patients.

Monday’s blackout also hit the National Assembly building, forcing
occupants to exit in the dark using stairs.

In the streets of Caracas, anxiety was evident as residents worked out how
to return home without a working subway network and few, overcrammed buses.

“I’m wondering how to get home because there’s no metro. I live in the
center and it takes me two hours. I move slowly,” said Ana Gonzalez, a frail
64-year-old who was closing up the cleaning products shop where she worked.

For others, frustration and anger bubbled over, adding to a sense of
powerlessness created by years of economic crisis that has made food and
medicine scarce and prompted an exodus of more than 2.7 million Venezuelans
since 2015.

“Here, nobody tells the truth. The media don’t tell the truth. And we’re
prevented from doing our work,” said Yoan, an electrician wiring up a frozen
yogurt shop

Rafael, working in a printing shop where all the machines had come to a
stop, accused the government of “not doing repairs” to the power grid.

“They give so many warnings about the network being damaged and they do
nothing,” he said.

rmb/oh

A new blackout swept across Venezuela on Monday, including much of Caracas,
sowing alarm two weeks after a nationwide outage that paralyzed the country.

The power cut in the capital occurred around 1:20 pm (1720 GMT) and knocked
out electricity in the city center.

After nightfall, many apartment buildings in the Caracas metro area — home
to around six million people — were aglow again and traffic lights were back
on, but people reported they were still in the dark in many other states.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez blamed the latest blackout on “an
attack on the charging and transmission center” at the Guri dam, which
supplies 80 percent of the power to the country of 30 million.

“What (last time) took days, now has been taken care of in just a few
hours,” Rodriguez said, saying the fix had been made in “record time.”

Earlier, a local newspaper reported that the power was out at Venezuela’s
main international airport outside Caracas.

Cellphone signals were disrupted and television was blanked out. Shops
hastily lowered shutters, fearing looters.

President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage on an “attack”
targeting the Guri hydroelectric plant.

Rodriguez told state television that the opposition was responsible,
claiming it “wants to plunge the population into profound unease.”

Juan Guaido, the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s interim
president by the US and many of its allies, countered on Twitter that
Maduro’s government “uses these moments to disinform and create anxiety.”

He said “at least 17” of the country’s 23 states were affected, as well as
much of the capital district covering Caracas, retweeting a graphic by web
monitoring organization NetBlocks showing the internet down for 57 percent of
Venezuela.

Anxious Twitter users who were online said several big cities in the west
of the country including Barquisimeto, Maracaibo and Barinas were impacted.

“Not another blackout, no God, no,” tweeted Flore Melero, a 29-year-old
resident in the town of Ocumare del Tuy southeast of Caracas.

“Sitting in the office, without power but with a generator, wondering ‘How
long will this new blackout last?’ ‘Do I have enough water at home?’ ‘What
about the meat and chicken in the freezer?'” tweeted a Caracas resident,
Andres Betancourt.

Their comments summed up the panic and concerns that have lingered since
the last blackout, which started March 7 and lasted a week.

During that blackout, more than a dozen patients in hospitals died, public
transport came to a halt, production slowed in the vital oil sector and water
supplies were interrupted, forcing citizens to turn to sewage outflows and
polluted water sources.

Maduro also blamed the previous outage on a cyberattack on the Guri plant,
accusing the United States. He went on to order the creation of a new
military unit to protect basic installations.

Observers at the time said that while a US attack was possible, it was
unlikely. They said years of underinvestment, poor management and corruption
was the likely culprit, and they predicted more power cuts would follow.

– Citizens frustrated –

According to a study by the opposition-ruled legislature and the medical
group Medicos por la Salud, around half of Venezuela’s hospitals have
generators. In the last blackout, however, many did not work or were
insufficient for the needs of intensive-care patients, neonatal wards and
dialysis patients.

Monday’s blackout also hit the National Assembly building, forcing
occupants to exit in the dark using stairs.

In the streets of Caracas, anxiety was evident as residents worked out how
to return home without a working subway network and few, overcrammed buses.

“I’m wondering how to get home because there’s no metro. I live in the
center and it takes me two hours. I move slowly,” said Ana Gonzalez, a frail
64-year-old who was closing up the cleaning products shop where she worked.

For others, frustration and anger bubbled over, adding to a sense of
powerlessness created by years of economic crisis that has made food and
medicine scarce and prompted an exodus of more than 2.7 million Venezuelans
since 2015.

“Here, nobody tells the truth. The media don’t tell the truth. And we’re
prevented from doing our work,” said Yoan, an electrician wiring up a frozen
yogurt shop

Rafael, working in a printing shop where all the machines had come to a
stop, accused the government of “not doing repairs” to the power grid.

“They give so many warnings about the network being damaged and they do
nothing,” he said.

BSS/AFP/GMR/0819 hrs