Another day, another display of socialist misery, as the ironically oil-rich nation of Venezuela is being placed under an electricity rationing plan to deal with the chronic blackouts that keep leaving its city streets in utter darkness.
Calling it a ““load management regime to balance the process of generation and transmission with consumption,”Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro announced the 30-day rationing plan Monday after yet another blackout struck the Central American nation Sunday, plunging the capital of Caracas into blackness again and leaving millions of people without power or water.
The situation has been a continuing problem for weeks, as power flickers back to life for minutes to hours at a time before shutting off again for days. Dozens have reportedly died in hospitals thanks to a lack of power, while millions more say they’ve been reduced to Middle Ages-level living after being unable to store perishable food or access running water.
The Maduro regime has blamed the blackouts on everything from American cyberattacks fires at the country’s main hydroelectric dam being sparked by opposition forces. Critics, however, are blaming a much more obvious cause – the abject failure of the socialist dictatorship to manage an increasingly chaotic situation and decades of infrastructural neglect.
The continuing blackouts have sparked numerous protests, including demonstrators setting up burning barricades near government buildings and demanding officials turn the power back on.