South, blackout and after | While Chavismo was moving …

Page12 in Venezuela

From Caracas

Again without electricity. We sat on the terrace, saw lights on the buildings, candles, lanterns, some pans for a few minutes, then silence, the great silence of Caracas, its valley, its hills and its shallows. It was 19:10, the third breakdown of the week, although the count is diffuse, the light sometimes comes off, returns, leaves. It does not matter the numbers, but what many people feel: fatigue, wear, chained effect of lack of meter, water, communications, uncertainty.

The answer was again the same in the neighborhoods: people on the sidewalks, cars lit to illuminate a game of dominoes, beers where there were, calm, waiting for the return of light, messages, wifis. The middle clbad areas gave up a moment and then fell silent. Nothing bursts, against the prognosis of many. Two plus two do not give four to Venezuela, or yes, when one looks at it from the popular depths.

He returned at 10:15 pm and an hour later he left. In total, there were twenty or so affected states and almost the entire capital. It's impressive to see Caracas detained, especially from the top of a hill. Three weeks after the beginning of the war of electricity, Chavismo maintains, with the evidence, that it is an attrition strategy implemented as part of the attempted coup d'etat. The right claims that everything is the responsibility of the government, corruption and inefficiency. The majority is convinced that there will be more breakdowns.

Saturdays have become a day of mobilization for Chavismo and sometimes for the right. The biggest difficulty is to realize it when, like this Saturday, the city was again without meters because of the power failure. It was the second day in which Chavismo faced the challenge of a mobilization without subway service and, as the previous time, had achieved a show of strength.

Since the beginning of the year, he has again ratified his status as a popular force that has not lost the street. Also, against all the forecasts on the right.

Juan Guaidó, for his part, had called a day of protest for the power cuts. His act got a little appeal, very small for their needs. The Guaidó effect is being deflated. His two main problems were promised what he could not do and looked more and more like a typical right-wing leader, to those who reject their very social basis for their fraud.

Following? Guaidó announced that on April 6, he would do a "first simulation of the operation of freedom". He has not yet explained what the operation is, from the point of view of simulation, it has only generated more disappointment among those who believe in the immediate departure of Nicolás Maduro. After two months, the images are clear: Chavismo has maintained its mobilization capacity, while the right is losing what it had managed to mobilize again on 23 January.

In the streets of Caracas, tranquility is usual, but the international confrontation worsens. It was first Donald Trump who, in the act by which he received the wife of Guaidó, Fabiana Rosales, declared that "Russia must leave Venezuela". His remarks referred to the arrival of two Russian planes at the Caracas airport on March 23, with teams and officials responsible for carrying out technical-military contracts between the two countries.

The answer came from Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman María Zajárova, who said that "neither Venezuela nor Russia are US provinces". And, he added: "Before suggesting to someone to leave somewhere, the United States must implement their own exit concept, especially from Syria (…) a month has elapsed and I would like to clarify, are they gone or not? "

Shortly before the declaration of Russia, China had issued a statement of support to the Venezuelan government in the mouth of Geng Shuang, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry: "Latin America does not belong to no country, nor to the backyard of a state ".

Venezuela has become the point of departure for geopolitical disputes, especially between the United States. and Russia. The aggravating factor of Donald Trump's and the American Deep State's policy is that this wrestling now affects a territory that should be under the exclusive control of the United States.

The evolution of the international dimension has had another element: the announcement of the Red Cross, which announced that it would distribute humanitarian aid to Venezuela within two weeks. He has not yet said how they will get there and if they talked to the government. They emphasized the "apolitical" nature of humanitarian aid, although the right was attributed to the announcement as a self-realization and the policy was exactly the same as that proposed by the United States. The evolution of events will give more clues about the goals of the Red Cross. For the moment, the situation in Venezuela continues in stable instability.