Fourth day of blackout in Venezuela: the drama of leaving in search of water, food and money – 03/10/2019

Venezuelans have destroyed candles, batteries, batteries, mineral water, bread, biscuits and trinkets in the few shops that opened yesterday. This was the case of a chain of pharmacies and a few supermarkets, which charged in dollars and cash and not with cards. Did the blackout of more than 70 hours block electronic outlets and ATMs? For the fourth consecutive day, almost all Venezuela, 22 of the country's 23 states, are without electricity due to power system failures at the main Guri hydropower plant in the south of the country, which provides 70% of the national demand.. This paralyzed Venezuelans, creating chaos in their daily lives.

Iván Bolívar, a 77-year-old retiree, was touring the urbanization of Los Palos Grandes in search of open commerce. He entered "Farmatodo", which has its own power station but could not carry a cell phone and was short of candles, batteries, water and bread.

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At his side, his wife Teresa Rojas, a retired teacher of 75 years, compared Venezuela to Cuba. "We feel a great deal of anguish in front of the power outage.Too long time without light, our children live in Spain and we have no way of communicating because there is neither internet nor battery in them. phones, "he says anxiously.

The marriage of Ivan and Teresa emigrated to Spain but returned a week ago to Caracas to bury her youngest son who stayed to take care of the family farm in the interior. "We have been killed by the common underground world", they are about to cry.

Your return trip to Madrid is booked for March 22nd. "Let's see if we can travel," says Teresa with a little doubt because with the blackout, the flights are empty. Were the pbadengers not able to go through the migrations due to the lack of electricity in the Simón Bolívar airport terminals.

"In Cota Mil de Caracas, there are several water connections, people queuing with bottles, bottles, to get liquid in La Castellana.In the Sebucán filling they provide cisterns.This site is militarized by the National Guard, "said Victor Amaya on Twitter.

The regime of Nicolas Maduro promised to solve the electricity crisis. But their efforts were in vain given the extent of the damage caused by the electrical structure. The fault was caused by a fire in the substation of the San Gernimo transmission system in the state of Guarico, in the center of the country, for lack of maintenance. But the chaos is such that Chavismo has extended until Monday the suspension of the working day and the student before the breakdown. This was announced by the Minister of Communication, Jorge Rodríguez, "By order of President Nicolás Maduro, school and professional activities are suspended tomorrow, Monday, March 11," said Rodríguez.

There is not much to buy in the few companies that remain open. The problem of the lack of electricity and water is compounded by the lack of money that Venezuelans have been suffering for months. The maximum bill of 500 bolivars equals 15 cents, which is not enough for a treat. This requires electronic transactions for virtually all operations, even the small ones. And without electricity, POSNET does not work, nor ATMs. But the regime attributes this to a sabotage of opposition. This was denied by the acting president, Juan Guaidó, who accuses Chavismo of spending $ 100 billion to repair the electrical system, which ended up in the dark of corruption. "And now we see the result of so many flights," said Guaidó.

It was also reported that family members of patients had to buy diesel to activate electric generators in some of the 300 hospitals equipped with this equipment. The morgue of Caracas has collapsed and admits more corpses due to lack of space and electricity. But buying fuel is another headache because gas stations can not provide vehicles for lack of electricity. On the fourth day of the breakdown, the government decided to ration and spread the electrical service, by areas and by districts of Caracas. This partial rationing is used to refrigerate food, but markets and businesses have suffered millions of losses. Until now, the authorities have not reported when the electricity service will be restored. Nor do they report on the progress of the repair of the damaged hydroelectric plant system.

The prolonged power outage ravaged many buildings of more than 10 floors, including one located in the center of Caracas. The first cut on Thursday damaged one of the two elevators. The next, after the electricity returned a few hours Friday, was leaving the other inoperative. The old oil lamps that lit up Elvia's house were a gift from her dead mother. "I had them as an ornament, I never imagined that I should use them," she said resignedly.