A new blackout has left Venezuela completely in the dark . Although outages to the electricity system have been frequent in recent months, this time all the inhabitants of Caracas and 14 other regions of the South American country have remained in the dark. The lights went out around 4:30 pm (local time) until 2:00 am on June 23rd. Stop the operation of the capital’s metro and the national plumbing system.
Corpoelec, the state-owned electricity company, reported few breakdowns in Caracas through social networks, while the situation was absolutely normal for state TV and radio channels. For the Minister of Communications of the government of Nicolas Maduro , Jorge Rodriguez, there are the first indications that lead to think that it is an “electromagnetic attack that tried to damage the hydroelectric generation system of Guayana, the main supplier of this service in the country”. “Fortunately – he added – after the sneaky attacks suffered by the system in March and April, the government has introduced protection and safety protocols that allow us to affirm that we are in the process of reconnecting to return the electricity service in the shortest possible time” .
A different reality from that registered by the NetBlocks.org platform, which specializes in monitoring global connectivity. According to them, Venezuela’s connection capacity is only 6% operational. The lack of electricity in Venezuela is frequent. In March, a blackout left much of the capital without energy for more than a week. On that occasion, Nicolas Maduro accused the United States of sabotaging the Guri dam. MAINTENANCE ISSUES
However, for experts in the sector (and the Venezuelan opposition), the outages of the electricity system borne by Corpoelec are the result of years of lack of maintenance and corruption in the responsible institution. Guillermo Olmo, BBC correspondent in Venezuela, explained that for some months the service seemed to have returned to normal, but only in Caracas. “In other areas of the country, such as in the Tachira and Zulia regions, the blackouts have ceased to be news – reads the website of the British broadcaster -. From the past blackout, Nicolas Maduro had accused the US of an electromagnetic attack, even if experts maintain that it is caused by the state in which the entire infrastructure is located ”.
In fact, Maduro had announced a rationing plan for the electricity service and after firing the Minister of Electricity. “But, given what happened yesterday – added Olmo – the substitute has not yet found the solution to the problem”. THE APPEAL OF GUAIDO
“They have destroyed the electricity system and have no answers,” said the president of the National Assembly and opposition leader of Venezuela, Juan Guaido . According to him, yesterday’s blackout is another failure of the Maduro government.
To protest against this situation, and to put pressure on the regime, Guaido called today to a large demonstration in Caracas. He anticipated that important announcements will be made on the next steps of the opposition’s agenda: “Our hope remains intact and our strategy solid. We have an important strength and we have increased it in all areas to provide urgent solutions to the suffering of Venezuelans. We maintain concentration and trust ”.
Also today, the Lima Group will meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to continue the work of coordinating the efforts of Latin American countries for the recovery of democracy in Venezuela. The meeting will be attended by representatives from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Peru, Canada, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Santa Lucia. Representatives from Ecuador and El Salvador will participate as observers. The president Guaido will be in videoconference. It is hoped that the special envoy of the European Union for Venezuela, Enrique Iglesias, will also be present.
