Power crisis forces national shutdown ahead of vote

President Daniel Noboa ordered businesses and government offices to shut down yesterday and today amid a crippling lack of power ahead of a key national referendum scheduled for Sunday.

Noboa blamed the unprecedented measure on drought, but also sabotage, without offering evidence. The energy crisis comes on the heels of a security crisis and a fiscal crisis that have sent the country seeking help from the International Monetary Fund.

“We’ve been hammered and hammered and hammered nonstop this week, they’ve tried to screw us with sabotage in the electric sector” to undermine support for his referendum, Noboa, 36, said in Atacames, a beach town hit hard by the surge in crime that has made Ecuador one of Latin America’s most violent countries.

The market-friendly heir of a banana export fortune is asking voters in Sunday’s referendum to approve stronger use of the military as well as the extradition of Ecuadorian citizens to fight crime and to overturn constitutional bans on temporary work and international arbitration.

Drought is also affecting other parts of the region in which several nations such as Ecuador are reliant on hydropower. In Bogota, capital of neighbouring Colombia, water is being rationed, and the country has stopped exporting electricity to Ecuador as a measure to avoid blackouts of its own.

Ecuador faced a shortfall in energy supply of 22-to-27 gigawatt-hours from this month, the presidency said. Because of the drought, major reservoirs for power plants including Mazar and Paute have almost run dry, while the biggest power plant, CocaCodo Sinclair, has a water flow 40 per cent below average.

The government also blamed the problem on former energy and mines minister Andrea Arrobo, replaced by Noboa with public works minister Roberto Luque, and 21 other officials for the crisis. The government has promised to pay half of consumers’ power bills for this month.

The crisis hits Noboa’s credibility after the assembly passed a fast-track bill in January dubbed the “no more blackouts law” that included a fund to maintain thermoelectric generating capacity.