“Return To Middle Ages”: Venezuela Again Plunged Into Darkness, Red Cross Mobilizes
Ahead of broad opposition protests planned for Saturday, Caracas and other large cities across Venezuela were once again plunged into darkness Friday evening, just as the country struggled to fully recover from prior days-long outages.
The latest blackout began just after 7:00pm, leaving most of the capital as well as Valencia, Maracay, San Cristobal and Maracaibo without electricity, again crippling the country’s transport, communication, water, and hospital infrastructures. A new blackout hit Caracas and other cities Friday evening, via the AP.
Reports this week have described the recent spate of mass outages as taking the already ailing and largely neglected infrastructure back to the Middle Ages, with descriptions of rotting and souring food on supermarket shelves, citizens making oil lamps, and Caracas residents washing dishes in nearby El Avila mountain streams due to lack of electricity to the city’s water pumps.
Venezuelans have also had to traverse long distances on foot to get to work, or complete simple tasks like retrieving food and supplies.
Sad days for Venezuelans every day! Their infrastructure has never been repaired for decades now it all crumbles down… #Venezuela #Caracas
This weekend’s outage marks the fourth power outage this month, which began on March 7. In response to the earlier outages, Venezuela’s Defense Ministry vowed to deploy armed forces to protect the national electricity system.
President Nicolás Maduro blamed Washington for the earlier outages, claiming over Twitter that the Trump administration was engaged in an “electrical war” which was “announced and directed by American imperialism against our people.”
Walking for hours, making oil lamps, bearing water. For Venezuelans today, suffering under a new nationwide blackout that has lasted days, it’s like being thrown back to life centuries ago. — AFP
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
