The Venezuelan plan for the completion of a hydroelectric plant faces an obstacle

The Venezuelan plans were aimed at completing the construction of a key hydropower plant by taking over the Negotiations with an Argentinian turbine manufacturer have been halted in the midst of the stringent sanctions imposed by the United States and the opposition of Inter-American Development Bank, according to people with direct knowledge of the issue.

In December, the Venezuelan electricity company Corpoelec met with representatives of IMPSA, based in Mendoza, Argentina, relaunch a former contract related to the hydroelectric plant Tocoma in the southeast of Bolívar to produce 2,160 megawatts. The project, which remains paralyzed since 2014 and whose price has climbed to nearly 9,000 million dollars, would relieve a network that collapsed for lack of investment and maintenance.

During the meeting, IMPSA noted that US $ 30 million was needed to complete the installation of two turbines, but they never received a firm response from Venezuela. A month and a half later, the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, declared himself responsible president of the nation and was immediately recognized by the United States, Argentina and dozens of other countries. The IDB, a Washington-based multilateral institution, voted on March 15 to recognize Guaidó in place of Nicolás Maduro, making work in Tocoma even more complicated.

The IDB is a lender in Venezuela and an indirect shareholder of IMPSA after a debt-for-equity swap last April to save the company from bankruptcy.

Even though the IDB has approved IMPSA's attempt to resume operations with the Maduro regime, the opposition of the government of Argentine President Mauricio Macri and the restrictions imposed on carrying out projects in Venezuela using the financial system American. after the sanctions could block future operations.

The moment could not be worse for Maduro, who clings to power with the support of military and strategic allies like Russia, China and Turkey and has trouble keeping the light on. A power outage that lasted a week this month left much of the nation in the dark and led to looting in Maracaibo, the second largest city in the country. On Monday, another power outage affected more than half of the territory, including the capital, and the government suspended Tuesday work and education related activities.

Maduro quickly attributed the incident to American sabotage, while industry experts and his opponents denounced years of neglect and insufficient investment to carry out projects such as Tocoma or carry out maintenance work. Finding the funding to invest in the network at a time when there is a shortage of food, medicine and machinery would also be a challenge for the president. The country's foreign reserves, mainly gold, amount to $ 8,700 million, compared with $ 22,000 million five years ago.

The Ministry of Communication and Information of Venezuela declined to comment.

A spokesman for the IMPSA did not make any statement. The IDB clarified that she did not participate in the administration of the company and added that she was only "the economic beneficiary of a stock trust".