Convened by Juan Guaidó, Venezuelans will demonstrate in the streets on the sixth day of the power outage: "Let the oppression die"

The people of Venezuela have been called to march this Tuesday, after more than 100 hours of blackout, to demand the departure of Nicolás Maduro from power, before an increasingly intolerable crisis for citizens due to the lack of energy. water and food. .

Juan Guaidó, proclaimed acting president, has called for demonstrations in the afternoon and it is expected that an act be organized shortly before 5 pm (local time, 9 pm GMT), which coincides with the 39, the time when the blackout began Thursday, the worst in this country of 30 million inhabitants.

"Everyone on the street to shout with energy that oppression will die", called Monday night on Twitter the young parliamentary leader, recognized as acting agent of more than 50 countries led by the United States.

The leader of the opposition asked the Venezuelan people to agree to demand respect for their rights, as the The National Assembly accuses the chavismo of the power outage which currently maintains without power at least five states of the country, according to a map disseminated by Guaidó on Twitter.

According to the president in office proclaimed, the blackout was due to the mismanagement of the energy authorities and the lack of investment in the system.

But the Maduro regime says that what has happened is a "sabotage" in the country's main hydroelectric power plant, the Guri, although this has not gone into the details.

The emergency situation, which affects Caracas and 22 of the 23 states, maintains intermittent service in several areas, although there are interior areas without electricity since last Thursday. "Nothing has happened here. We continue in the dark, sleeping in hammocks or on mattresses in the street"said Roxana Peña, 27, who lives near the oil town of Maracaibo, where heat accelerates the loss of food.

The power outage has collapsed on water supply, already deficient in itself, because the tank pumps require energy to operate. Faced with this, many are trying to stock up in supermarkets or natural sources.

In Caracas, to a desperate extent, a group of people went to the polluted channel of the Guaire River to collect water in a socket on the side. "We have a dry throat," they shouted to the army who kicked them out.

Some have no choice but to pay in dollars or wait for the tank trucks that Maduro has sent to popular neighborhoods or hired mayors of the opposition.

Popular discontent
Faced with the prolongation of the crisis, Authorities again extended until Tuesday the suspension of working hours and hours of students I had ordered it on Thursday.

In certain places water and food are charged in dollars for lack of money, in a country where the smallest purchase must be paid on credit cards, now inactive for lack of energy.

Some looting Spontaneous people have registered in some parts of the country. "It's amazing, people came out with pieces of food, they made holes in the walls of the shops"he said to the AFP Levy Martínez, 32, resident of Maracaibo.

An badysis of the Eurasia group indicates that the worsening of the crisis will deepen popular discontent with Maduro, but Guaidó "faces challenges to take advantage of this discomfort as his supporters could demobilize, frustrated because" he could not force a quick change. "

Calling the situation a "public calamity", decided Monday Guaidó, with the approval of Congress by a majority of the opposition, a state "national alarm" for 30 days, in order to solicit the International help to overcome the crisis.

In the decree, the opposition asked the army to "refrain from" demonstrations and demanded "the immediate suspension" of the release of oil in Cuba in order avoid a shortage of gasoline in the country, where there are already long queues at the service stations. in fear that it will run out.

For its part, Maduro said Monday night that behind the blackout was a Guaidó strategy aimed at reactivating the entry of "humanitarian aid" from the United States that failed Feb. 23 and justified a US military invasion.

"The time of active resistance has arrived," said the socialist leader to popular organizations, including "collectives" – groups of civilians accused by the opposition of being armed.

(With information from AFP and EFE)