Venezuela's power outage, the whole country staged "people on the road"

At the evening rush hour on the 22nd, Venezuela once again experienced a sudden nationwide power outage, which caught the people on their way to work off guard, and many people were even "lost" on the way home. According to media statistics, the power outage is the fourth time that the country has experienced in just 5 months, and this time even caracas, the capital with relatively developed infrastructure facilities, has not been spared.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the 23rd that the great power outage on the 22nd led to a real version of the "people on the road" staged throughout Venezuela - the accident occurred at about 4:45 p.m. that day, impartially catching the evening peak, and many people were trapped on the way home. Some interviewees described it as "walking and finding that the street lights and signal lights were all out", and then they saw chaos on the street. In the capital Caracas, the subway line was completely paralyzed, and many commuters from far away families sat helplessly on the side of the road, considering the return trip. For Riva, a 45-year-old cleaner, the night's journey home was particularly poignant: she cleaned up in a wealthy neighborhood in the east of the city during the day and returned to a remote slum at night. After the commute was interrupted, she had to hitchhike all the way, and after getting out of the car, she walked for more than an hour to get home. Another interviewee, Suarez, said she was "almost unable to find her home" in a pitch-black environment because it was getting late and the street lights were all out.

Because the great power outage inevitably means the lack of basic living security, many people are worried about it. Some respondents reported that the first reaction to hearing the news of the "power outage" was to urgently dispose of the food in the home - the big power outage that occurred in March caused the food in the home to deteriorate and caused the family to "suffer heavy losses". However, many residents said they were "prepared": Sandova, the owner of the 37-year-old repair shop, had purchased a water storage tank and generator in advance, and when night fell, he was leisurely drinking coffee and eating desserts with friends.

The Associated Press said that on the evening of the 22nd, 3 hours after the country "went dark into the night", National Communications Secretary Rodriguez made a very brief accident description - claiming that the national hydropower system was "electromagnetic attacked" . However, some media believe that the power outage is "different from the past": venezuela's recent power outages have occurred frequently, and the government will often concentrate limited power resources and give priority to ensuring power supply in the capital region; But this time, even Caracas "turned off" the fire. The Venezuelan opposition also took the opportunity to criticize the Maduro government's "underinvestment" and "mismanagement" in infrastructure facilities, claiming that the power outage was the result of "years of corruption"; On the 23rd, Venezuela's "self-reliant president" Guaido also incited people to protest on Twitter.

It is reported that the Venezuelan government has deployed security forces, activated emergency plans to ensure safety and basic medical services, and stressed that the country has stepped up maintenance work for the restoration of electricity. In addition, there is also public opinion that Venezuela's successive power outages may be related to external forces, not just domestic problems.