Despair, anger as Venezuelans endure paralyzing blackout

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – Venezuelans wavered between despair and rage Wednesday as they endured a third day of a near-nationwide blackout that has paralyzed their country – the second such outage this month.

“Food stocks are starting to rot. There’s no water. The transport virtually doesn’t work. There’s no means of communication,” said Nestor Carreno, who was forced to shutter his pizzeria in a formerly upscale district of Caracas.

“I don’t know how my family is doing. Insecurity is growing.”

A cacophony of saucepans being banged out of windows and car horns in the street has been heard in the capital since the start of the vast outage.

Memories of the first, which started on March 7 and lasted a week – forcing citizens to seek water from rivers and sewage outflows as pumps came to a halt – fed the anguish. Many residents stocked up on food and water.

The government of President Nicolas Maduro, which blamed the blackouts on US “cybernetic” attacks and opposition “sabotage” and “terrorism,” decreed the closure of public offices and schools until Wednesday night.

Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said a new power cut Wednesday had plunged some parts of Caracas and other regions into the darkness once again, shortly after electricity had been restored.

He said work was continuing to fix “equipment damaged by the terrorism.”

The outage was affecting 21 of Venezuela’s 23 states, according to users on social media.

The government has given no official information on its scale.

Juan Guaido, the opposition leader whom the US and many of its allies recognize as the country’s interim president over Maduro, called for a national protest on Saturday over “the lack of public services.”

“The light has gone, we can’t remain passive actors,” Guaido told supporters.

He has rejected the government allegations that the opposition was behind the latest blackout as “lies.”

‘The worst you can live through’

Caracas resident Mildred Tejeras, 48, explained the daily hardships.

“You don’t know if you’ll be able to get back home if you’ve gone out to look for something to eat or, now, power or water. We are living through the worst that you can live through in Venezuela,” she said.