Venezuela is on its third day without electricity, causing unease in the people because of the effects it has on healthcare, telecommunications and transportation.
The government attributes the power outage that began Thursday night to a “sabotage” perpetrated by the United States to the Guri hydroelectric power plant, the biggest in the country. Meanwhile, there’s also the threat of a military intervention that has Juan Guaido as its main figure. However, the workers and some experts have blamed the failures on corruption and the lack of maintenance and inversions.
The enormous electrical failure punishes even more a country that is suffering hyperinflation and the shortage of food and medicines. Many supermarkets are closed because they do not have generators. No one can withdraw money from ATM’s or use any kind of credit or debit card, in a country where electronic transactions are key, even for small operations, because there is no cash. There are already long lines in the few gasoline stations that resumed their activity when the electricity returned. There are already reports about deaths in hospitals, and the rail system and the Caracas metro are out of service.
Amidst this catastrophe, the pro-interference voices used it to promote the development of the interventionism that is after the overthrow of Maduro. The world has seen this kind of attacks by the U.S. before and it wouldn’t be surprising if it happened again. It is known that, for imperialism, those who must pay what it cynically calls “the quota of sacrifice” to “restore democracy and freedom” are the people.
But it is important to remember that the working-class rank-and-file and union leaders of the energy sector have systematically denounced the collapse of the national electrical system. Many states in Venezuela have suffered black-outs for years and the lack of qualified personnel because of the insecurity of the workers’ wages.
In the middle of the electrical chaos, it is important to designate an investigating committee independent of the government and of interventionist interests, in which the workers of Corpoelec participate the most. That they check the situation, recover and put together the data that allows them to create an emergency plan. They know what is really happening, so they would inform the people and propose solutions.
This issue cannot be left in the hands of the bureaucracy and the army, the society has the right to know and act. While the leaderships that dispute power promote repression and interventionism, the working class is called to offer a solution to the people that are suffering isolation, precariousness and uncertainty.
From Marea Socialista, we are available for the workers to offer a solution to the crisis that none of the traditional leaderships will solve.
Against the electric emergency, an independent investigating committee!
Marea Socialista