In recent hours, Venezuelans have been experiencing a already seen. The power outages that affected millions of people across the country served as an opportunity for the government to accuse the opposition of “sabotage” and of not recognizing the election results. The same thing happened five years ago, in March 2019, but the person accused by Nicolas Maduro’s regime was then Juan Guaido and today it is Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
In the early hours of Thursday to Friday, all 24 states of the country reported total or partial loss of electricity supply, as reported by the Minister of Communications, Freddy Ñañezat the beginning of the 30th. “We were once again victims of electrical sabotage,” he said.
This is why the Maduro regime focused on the opposition from the beginning, without offering any evidence or indication that this was a deliberate action and not one of the many power cuts that the country suffers due to the poor state of its infrastructure.
The Venezuelan president was also quick to blame the “fascism” of “attack on the people”a “new attack” that everyone in the country will overcome “together.” “As always, I stand with the people and I am at the forefront of this criminal attack on the national electricity system. I have said it and I will repeat it: calm and common sense, nerves of steel!”, the head of state expressed in a message on Telegram.
Power began to return to parts of Venezuela Friday afternoon, although during the major blackout of 2019, several areas were left without electricity for seven days.
On this occasion, in addition to serious problems in basic infrastructures such as hospitals or industries, there were riots and looting that left more than 40 dead. The army was deployed in the streets to avoid similar situations, help restore the electricity service and collaborate in exceptional transport measures.
In this sense, the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino Lopezactivated the Centella Plan which, among other things, activated a “shock force”, composed of “about a hundred officers and trained electrical and hydraulic engineers who are activated whenever a situation occurs with a public service”.
“In the case of transportation and patrols, we have eliminated all motorized units, trucks, tactical and non-tactical vehicles, as well as civilians to support people in their movements if necessary,” Padrino added.
The army has also taken up positions at the borders and in the perimeter of the Miraflores Palace, the seat of the Venezuelan presidency. This protection comes in the context of the protests that took place last month for the National Electoral Council to publish the minutes of the presidential election, and the non-recognition of Maduro’s electoral victory, even by some of his past allies. . , such as Lula da Silva either Gabriel Boric.
judicial harassment
Criminal charges against opposition leaders without evidence have been a common strategy of Chavismo in recent years, especially when there are street protests or anti-Chavismo organizations trying to oust Maduro from the presidency.
In fact, in recent weeks, the Executive has accused the opposition of various crimes. The Public Ministry (Prosecution) has already summoned the head of the United Democratic Platform (PUD) and presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, accusing him, among other things, of being responsible for the website that publishes the electoral registers compiled by his supporters and that the regime refuses to disseminate until now.
He is also accused of disobedience and incitement to violenceamong other criminal charges. After González Urrutia’s three failures to appear before the prosecutor’s summons, it is expected that the prosecutor will request an arrest warrant against the opposition leader, who has not revealed his whereabouts for several weeks.
Also to the leader of the current opposition movement, Maria Corina MachadoShe is being persecuted for several legal reasons, such as the “conspiracy against the country,” which prevented her from running in the elections as the main anti-Chavista candidate.
The strategy of harassment and criminal demolition against the opposition has thus continued since cases such as that of Juan Guaidowho was appointed president of Venezuela by an Assembly that Chavismo did not recognize. The same attorney general who is currently prosecuting González Urrutia has accused Guaidó of the crimes of “treason against the homeland, usurpation of functions, profit or embezzlement of money, securities or public property and association with the intention of committing a crime.”
Impact on oil
Friday’s outage affected some key operations at state oil company PDVSA, including the country’s largest oil terminal, Jose, where the loading and unloading of ships was disrupted by the outage, according to sources and a shipping document seen by ReutersAbout 70% of Venezuela’s oil exports pass through Jose, which does not have its own electricity system.
PDVSA’s headquarters in Caracas lost power, but the company’s largest refining complex, Paraguaná, was unaffected because its own power plant was operating, the sources said.
In Venezuela’s largest oil region, the Orinoco Belt, the impact of the outage was minimal because many oil fields and operations have their own generators, the sources said.
