The longest nationwide power outage in world history has plunged Venezuela into utter chaos. While there had not been any official explanations as to the real reason behind this power outage, the people are pointing to the rot at the nation's top corridors.
For them, trouble began as early as 2010 when populist policies under the then president Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution dragged the country into a socio-economic and political crisis. This continued into the presidency of Nicolas Maduro and grew more severe as a result of low oil prices in early 2015. In seeking to consolidate more power, Maduro annexed state institutions and rid government vessels of their powers until he met an unprecedented resistance in the people.
Now, on the streets of Caracas, as food rots in shops and on market stalls, and as drinking water becomes increasingly difficult to find, the patience of the people are falling faster than Venezuela's GDP.
Authorities have only managed to provide patchy access to power since the outage began on Thursday. National Assembly leader Juan Guaido, who is attempting to oust President Maduro, says if the power cut continues he will declare a national emergency. Acting as the interim head of state, Guaido has the support of 56 world nations. Despite that he has been unable to displace Maduro, who is backed by Russia and China, and controls the military.
Maduro has labelled the power outage as an act of sabotage by agents allied to the US. The Information Minister for the state, Jorge Rodriguez, had informed in a television statement that they believed the power outage to be the result of a cyber-attack on the state's electric grid and that the government was taking effective measures to tackle the situation. He also added that Maduro had ordered a deployment of ministers to ensure that the Venezuelan people are attended to.
What eluded the statement was a definite time frame for the resolution of the power outage situation. This has left many to worry that it could extend indefinitely. Desperation has led to looting of shops in Caracas, the nation's capital, which triggered a shootout with the police. At Venezuela's hospitals, the blackout combined with the absence or poor performance of backup generators have led to the death of 17 patients across the country. More than 1.2 million Venezuelans have already fled seeking refugee in nearby countries.
With the state powers locked in war and humanitarian agents kept at bay by the military, the people of Venezuela is paying the highest price.
