The Committee of People Affected by Blackouts has registered a continuous increase in the number of failures, going from 3,296 cuts in January to 10,013 in the month of May.
“They have rebounded in recent months (failures) and this is due to the lack of attention in the national electrical system. You can not continue placing hot cloths. A solution must be found for the entire generation, distribution and transmission network,” the committee’s president, Aixa López, told EFE.
The great blackout of March 7, 2019, which lasted almost a week, is a shadow for Venezuelans who fear reliving a similar disconnection, and which on that occasion caused a collapse in services and the death of 21 patients in hospitals due to failure of equipment that works with electricity, according to the NGO Doctors for Health.
For experts, the crisis generated after the collapse of 2019 has not abated and is the result of a lack of attention, maintenance and investment in the system.
Between January and May of this year, 31,123 electrical failures have been registered throughout the territory, a figure that, according to the Blackout Committee, demonstrates “the permanent neglect of the electrical system.”
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The oil state of Zulia (west) heads the list of cuts registered by this NGO, which ensures that this region is one of the most affected.
In this entity, 2,010 failures were documented in May, which contrasts with the 423 recorded last January.
Uraima Benítez, a resident of Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia, assured EFE that in her area “they cut off the light every four hours” in cuts that last until dawn, complicating the rest of the inhabitants of this region, one of the hottest from Venezuela, which requires the use of air conditioning.
Daniel Boscán, another resident of Maracaibo, explained that “when the power goes out” they have to leave their houses or take security risks, leaving doors and windows open to improve ventilation.
However, although blackouts are more pronounced in inland towns, they also occur in the capital, where there have been 613 power outages so far this year.
The discontent over the constant power outages is reflected in numerous demonstrations, as the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict documented 38 protests over power failures during the first three months of 2023.
The problem also affects indigenous communities in Amazonas (south, bordering Brazil and Colombia), where the NGO Kapé Kapé recently denounced “constant and prolonged power cuts.”
FUENTE: EFE and www.lapatilla.com
