(30 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caracas, Venezuela – 30 August 2024
1. Various of restaurant workers in the dark
2. Yoleida Zamora, 58, restaurant worker speaking to people outside restaurant
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yoleida Zamora, 58, restaurant worker:
“Eight hours (without electricity), I woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning, ready to work. I went out and saw there was no power at all. I came to work anyway, I arrived and it was closed, there is no activity. So what can we do? Wait to see what happens later. This is all sad.”
4. Cars parked on the side of a highway next to Waraira Repano mountain as people grab water from the mountain to take home.
5. Various of people filling bottles with water
6. Ruth Alvarez filling bottle with water
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth Alvarez, teacher:
“We’re hopeful the electricity will return and that it won’t be like in 2019. We were talking about that in my family this morning, hoping the situation in 2019 won’t happen again because it was chaotic.”
8. Various of traffic lights turned off
9. People walking on the street
10. People sitting outside closed shop
11. Grocery store in the dark
12. Eduardo Blanco, merchant, standing outside his shop
13. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Eduardo Blanco, merchant:
“We have to keep going because we all have children, they study. How do I pay for their studies, how do you bring food to your house? You have to come to work no matter what the situation is, good, bad, damaged, whatever, you have to come to work. It’s the only thing left here."
14. Various of cars on highway
15. Billboard of President Nicolás Maduro behind street lights
STORYLINE:
Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states.
President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage, which it said began about 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.”
While some areas regained power on Friday afternoon, some states and areas of the capital remained without power.
During a period of political unrest in 2019, Venezuela suffered from a massive power outage that lasted for several days.
Many Venezuelans were hoping to avoid a repeat of that crisis.
During that year, Venezuela suffered from regular power outages that the government almost always blamed on its opponents, but energy experts have said were the result of brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country’s hydroelectric infrastructure.
Many of the energy problems have subsided as the South American nation’s economy has stabilized, high inflation has eased and a de facto dollarization has reduced shortages of imported goods.
Still, following last month’s contested presidential election, officials are quick to blame opponents for even minor disruptions. That was the case on Tuesday, when a brownout affected Caracas and several central states.
Residents of the capital were taking Friday’s disruption in stride. Traffic during the normally busy rush hour was lighter than usual and some people complained about being unable to communicate with family members due to a lack of cellphone service.
Venezuela’s power grid relies heavily on the Guri Dam, a hydroelectric power station that was inaugurated in the late 1960s.
The electrical system has been burdened by poor upkeep, a lack of alternative energy supplies and a drain of engineering talent as an estimated 8 million Venezuelan migrants have fled economic misery in recent years.
AP Video by Juan Arraez and Andry Rincon
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