The blackout turned off the last cells operating at Venalum and Alcasa, and with them, an entire aluminium factory. The sad new chapter on the rise and fall of an industry that gave Venezuela valuable non-oil exports tells a cautionary tale: if you build an entire cluster on electric power, don’t let that resource disappear.
The damage from the huge blackout that just attacked Venezuelans is such, that even now, a week later, we can’t quite grasp it in full. This is what we do know: it’s a lot, and we’re falling short.
These are the stories of the people hit hardest by looting in Venezuela’s second city: small business owners who have no chance of surviving an event like that, helpless against the anarchy unleashed in Zulia due to the national blackout.
After more than 80 hours without power, groups of people at the normally dangerous Venezuelan capital city began to protest and some incidents of looting took place. Security forces managed to avoid the violence from spiraling, and just then the power came back.
Nearly 30 hours after his enforced disappearance, journalist and human rights activist Luis Carlos Díaz was released from SEBIN headquarters in El Helicoide with precautionary measures. A safety net of people was all that stood between him and a prison cell.
At Caracas hospitals, every one of the innumerable problems is getting worse, while colectivos and security forces threaten everyone who is trying to help or even get some answers about the extent of the crisis.
Although he didn’t prepare for this exactly, he knew something could come up that would require him to hole up and resist. Our own Victor Drax is a prepper and this is how he faced the massive blackout that attacked Venezuelans.
Venezuela’s second city spent the first 50 hours of blackout trying to survive under the intense heat. But once food and water began to run out, the looting started. All kinds of businesses are being destroyed by a mob made of desperate people and common thugs.
After the humanitarian aid debacle at the border on February 23rd, and amid the ongoing national blackout, pressure has been building on caretaker President Juan Guaidó to come up with a definitive solution to the crisis in the form of military intervention, undermining critical unity.
Once a pleasant, clear-water creek, in our times the Guaire is no more than Caracas’ open air sewer. Amid power cuts that took down the water pumping stations that feed Caracas, the people from the slums of San Agustin had to climb down to its embankment to collect water of unknown origin and very dubious safety.
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