Venezuelans struggle to find food, water amid blackout
Opposition, aid groups blame power outages in more than a dozen deaths
CARACAS, VENEZUELA— Opposition lawmakers and aid groups warned Sunday that an unprecedented nationwide blackout in Venezuela was causing a rising number of deaths, as citizens struggled for a fourth day to find food and water and hospitals were paralyzed.
“What Venezuelans are living today looks like a science fiction movie,” said Juan Guaido, the opposition leader spearheading a U.S.-backed campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido said at least 17 deaths had occurred at hospitals as a result of the outages. Meanwhile, a medical aid group, Codevida, said it had reports of 15 people who had died due to kidney failure linked to the lack of power.
It was not possible to independently confirm the reports. The Venezuelan government has released little information on the blackout, blaming it on sabotage by U.S. authorities. Trump administration officials have denied the accusation and attributed the power outages to years of underinvestment and poor maintenance. While power was restored to some areas on Sunday, it was often fickle, failing hours later.
The lack of power has left hos- pitals depending on generators — if they have them — and has also shut the Caracas metro and virtually halted public transportation. That means many medical personnel can’t get to their jobs.
On Sunday afternoon, a weeping 24-year-old woman sat in a chair outside the hospital at the Central University of Venezuela. “My baby just died,” she said softly. “There was no pediatric surgeon.”
Most of the hospital’s corridors were dark Sunday, and there was no running water.
Guaido — who has been recognized as interim president by the U.S. and more than 50 other countries — called for new protests on Monday in response to the blackout.