Guaido visits crumbling oil city
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has met obstacles at nearly every turn since he declared presidential powers in a bid to end socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s rule, and his visit to this once-thriving oil centre was no different.
He was forced to take a boat to outmanoeuver police roadblocks and reach throngs of supporters waiting to hear him speak in the sweltering heat in Maracaibo, a city now infamous for its blackouts.
Security forces had blocked the bridge across Lake Maracaibo just as Guaido arrived on Monday. Undeterred, the 35-yearold opposition leader and his entourage boarded a private boat and sped off across the water.
While Guaido has gained backing from the United States and some 50 other nations, Maduro remains firmly entrenched nearly three months into the struggle for control of Venezuela. Guaido has been stripped of his immunity and faces the looming threat of arrest — something he warned would be a ‘‘big mistake.’’
‘‘It would only deepen the crisis,’’ Guaido told The Associated Press as the boat crossed the choppy waters. ‘‘The consequences would only hurt the regime.’’
Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city of 1.5 million where refineries that once hummed with constant activity have fallen into disrepair, is a window into a nation that has plunged into chaos.
The power has returned for most of Venezuela after a massive electrical grid failure that blanketed most of the country’s 30 million residents starting March 7.
But Maracaibo hasn’t bounced back.
The city is a crumbling version of its former self. Gushing oil wells that helped make a nation with the world’s largest oil reserves flush with cash have given way to broken-down oil platforms that sit idle as nearby
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days shores are black with oozing crude. Maracaibo has endured rampant blackouts for more than a year, leaving residents of a city where temperatures regularly reach 100 degrees without air conditioning and refrigerators, spoiling food.
In the streets, residents spend hours searching for water, and schools barely open. –AP