Thread: Caracas returns to Middle Ages during power outages.. Dirt Broke Socialist Venezuela

Dirt Broke Socialist Venezuela

Caracas returns to 'Middle Ages' during power outages...

Maria Lorente

,AFP • March 28, 2019

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

1 / 6
A man carries drums with water he collected from a stream at the Wuaraira Repano mountain, also called El Avila, in Caracas on March 13, 2019

A man carries drums with water he collected from a stream at the Wuaraira Repano mountain, also called El Avila, in Caracas on March 13, 2019 (AFP Photo/Federico Parra)

Caracas (AFP) - Walking for hours, making oil lamps, bearing water. For Venezuelans today, suffering under a new nationwide blackout that has lasted days, it's like being thrown back to life centuries ago.
El Avila, a mountain that towers over Caracas, has become a place where families gather with buckets and jugs to fill up with water, wash dishes and scrub clothes. The taps in their homes are dry from lack of electricity to the city's water pumps.
"We're forced to get water from sources that obviously aren't completely hygienic. But it's enough for washing or doing the dishes," said one resident, Manuel Almeida.
Because of the long lines of people, the activity can take hours of waiting.
Elsewhere, locals make use of cracked water pipes. But they still need to boil the water, or otherwise purify it.
"We're going to bed without washing ourselves," said one man, Pedro Jose, a 30-year-old living in a poorer neighborhood in the west of the capital.
Some shops seeing an opportunity have hiked the prices of bottles of water and bags of ice to between $3 and $5 -- a fortune in a country where the monthly minimum salary is the equivalent of $5.50.
Better-off Venezuelans, those with access to US dollars, have rushed to fill hotels that have giant generators and working restaurants.
For others, preserving fresh food is a challenge. Finding it is even more difficult. The blackout has forced most shops to close.
"We share food" among family members and friends, explained Coral Munoz, 61, who counts herself lucky to have dollars.
"You have to keep a level head to put up with all this, and try to have people around because being alone make it even harder."
- Scouring trash -
For Kelvin Donaire, who lives in the poor Petare district, survival is complicated.
He walks for more than an hour to the bakery where he works in the upmarket Los Palos Grandes area. "At least I'm able to take a loaf back home," Donaire said.
Many inhabitants have taken to salting meat to preserve it without working refrigerators.
Others, more desperate, scour trash cans for food scraps. They are hurt most by having to live in a country where basic food and medicine has become scarce and out of reach because of rocketing hyperinflation.
The latest blackout this week also knocked out communications.
According to NetBlocks, an organization monitoring telecoms networks, 85 percent of Venezuela has lost connection.
- 'People need to eat' -
In stores, cash registers no longer work and electronic payment terminals are blanked out. That's serious in Venezuela, where even bread is bought by card because of lack of cash.
Some clients, trusted ones, are able to leave written IOUs.
"People need to eat. We let them take food and they will pay us when bank transfers come back," explained shop owner Carlos Folache.
Underneath an office block of Digitel, one of the main cellphone companies, dozens of people stand around trying to get a signal.
"I'm trying to get connected to get news... on this chaotic episode we're going through," said one man, Douglas Perez.
With Caracas's subway shut down, getting around the city is a trail, with choices between walking for kilometers (miles), lining up in the outsized hope of getting on one of the rare and badly overcrowded and dilapidated buses or managing to get fuel for a vehicle.
Pedro Jose said bus tickets have nearly doubled in price. "A ticket used to cost 100 bolivares (three US cents) and now it's 1,500 (45 cents)," he raged.
As night casts Caracas into darkness, families light their homes as best they can.
"We make lamps that burn gasoline, or oil, or kerosene -- any type of fuel," explained Lizbeth Morin, 30.
"We've returned to the Middle Ages."


https://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-ret...143506671.html

Pedestrians walk by a graffiti reading "Is There Light?"
Pedestrians walk by a graffiti reading "Is There Light?" (AFP Photo/Federico PARRA)





With minimal public transportation, people have flocked to the streets of Caracas
With minimal public transportation, people have flocked to the streets of Caracas (AFP Photo/YURI CORTEZ)




The power outages have had a life and death impact on some patients in need of critical medical care, such as kidney dialysis
The power outages have had a life and death impact on some patients in need of critical medical care, such as kidney dialysis (AFP Photo/Federico PARRA)

Do not send them here!

No money, no aid and no oatmeal.

These countries need to start taking care of themselves!

And STOP breeding! That is sick, you cannot feed yourselves but you continue to breed and make more mouths you cannot feed! Disgusting people!

"Return To Middle Ages": Venezuela Again Plunged Into Darkness, Red Cross Mobilizes



Residents describe medieval conditions...

Sat, 03/30/2019 - 13:03
547 SHARES

Ahead of broad opposition protests planned for Saturday, Caracas and other large cities across Venezuela were once again plunged into darkness Friday evening, just as the country struggled to fully recover from prior days-long outages.
The latest blackout began just after 7:00pm, leaving most of the capital as well as Valencia, Maracay, San Cristobal and Maracaibo without electricity, again crippling the country's transport, communication, water, and hospital infrastructures.



A new blackout hit Caracas and other cities Friday evening, via the AP. Reports this week have described the recent spate of mass outages as taking the already ailing and largely neglected infrastructure back to the Middle Ages, with descriptions of rotting and souring food on supermarket shelves, citizens making oil lamps, and Caracas residents washing dishes in nearby El Avila mountain streams due to lack of electricity to the city's water pumps.
Venezuelans have also had to traverse long distances on foot to get to work, or complete simple tasks like retrieving food and supplies.

Sotiri Dimpinoudis ❁‏ @sotiridi

Sad days for Venezuelans every day! Their infrastructure has never been repaired for decades now it all crumbles down... #Venezuela #Caracas
CNW @ConflictsW

Caracas metro train broke down forcing users to walk along the tracks #Venezuela #Caracas



Video at the tweet

9
2:46 PM - Mar 29, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

See Sotiri Dimpinoudis ❁‏'s other Tweets

This weekend's outage marks the fourth power outage this month, which began on March 7. In response to the earlier outages, Venezuela's Defense Ministry vowed to deploy armed forces to protect the national electricity system.
President Nicolás Maduro blamed Washington for the earlier outages, claiming over Twitter that the Trump administration was engaged in an "electrical war" which was "announced and directed by American imperialism against our people."

Walking for hours, making oil lamps, bearing water. For Venezuelans today, suffering under a new nationwide blackout that has lasted days, it's like being thrown back to life centuries ago. — AFP

The US has repeatedly denied the charge while taking increasingly bolder steps to attempt to legitimize self-declared "Interim President" Juan Guaido. Simultaneously Maduro has stripped Guaido of public office, barring him for 15 years.
Previously, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez blamed the last blackout on "an attack on the charging and transmission centre" at the Guri dam, which crucially supplies the country of 30 million with 80 percent of the power.

NetBlocks.org ✔ @netblocks

Urgent: Major new power outage registered across #Venezuela at 11:10 PM UTC (7:10 PM VET); network data shows national connectivity now at just 10% #SinLuz #Apagon #29Mar https://netblocks.org/reports/connectivity-across-venezuela-drops-following-new-national-power-outage-gdAmbvB9 …

448
7:49 PM - Mar 29, 2019

995 people are talking about this

According to early unconfirmed reports, this latest blackout appears also the result of hydroelectric water generators inside the Guri power plant failing.
Likely the newest blackout will fuel and exacerbate the intensity of anti-Maduro protests through the weekend.



AFP: A man carries drums with water he collected from a stream at the Wuaraira Repano mountain, also called El Avila, in Caracas.

Perhaps sensitive to the growing anger and frustration of Venezuelans even among Maduro supporters, Rodriguez had previously boasted of the government's ability to bring things back online: "What (last time) took days, now has been taken care of in just a few hours," Rodriguez said, saying the last fix had been made in "record time".
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have announced that they will have unhindered access to bring aid into the increasingly desperate and struggling country, set to begin in April.
Red Cross officials plan to begin delivering aid to "650,000 people within 20 days" —something which both sides, Maduro and Guaido supporters — are claiming as a victory.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...ross-mobilizes

NO MONEY
NO AID
NO OATMEAL

KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!

WE ARE NOT THE ATM MACHINE FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD!

Venezuela under candlelight

An entire nation slides into primitivism.

April 3, 2019
By Silvio Canto, Jr.

Last night, I was having a conversation with a couple of friends from Latin America — to be specific, Venezuela, Mexico, and Peru.
Inevitably, the conversation turned to Venezuela.
My friend from Venezuela shared a joke going around Caracas. It goes sort of like this: "What did we do before Chávez?" The answer is: "We used electricity and hair-dryers."
We laughed, but not for long.
The follow-up joke was this: "What's the hottest selling item on sale at the Venezuela-Colombia border?" The answer is "candles."
At this point, I did not laugh, but I did say an "expletive deleted" comment about Chávez and Maduro.
According to Sukanti Bhave, who has been working with refugees on the border, the situation is terrible:

The bridge in Cucuta is the busiest border between the two countries. With the shortage of necessities in Venezuela, residents of the border town, San Antonio de Tachira, often buy basic necessities (toilet paper, diapers, laundry detergent, etc.), from Colombian supermarkets at the border.
Jaimes Suarez and his wife have three children, including a six-month-old daughter. The couple crossed the border with their baby to buy groceries and candles in Cucuta.
"San Antonio isn't a functional city anymore. Stores are closed. Candles are sold on the black market. But they are very expensive," says Suarez.
Without electricity, they have no means of storing food or milk for the baby. Neither can they cook fresh meals.
A few years ago, the Suarez family started using an electric stove.
"Cooking gas is state managed, and we would get one cylinder every few months. It was difficult to cook sufficient meals until the next distribution of gas cylinders. The service was unreliable," he adds.
They tell me that electricity is heavily subsidized in Venezuela. However, there have been frequent power cuts since 2009.
"Caracas wasn't affected by power cuts before this year, but in many other states, we remained without electricity for three to four hours almost every day. The Venezuelan people don't believe the lies of this government. We all know that electricity outage is due to corruption and mismanagement," he concludes.

This is a shocking tale for those of us who remember Caracas when the lights were on and baseball or business was the topic of every conversation. I remember going shopping in Caracas and it looked like a store in Miami.
Today, the conversation with anyone from Venezuela living in the U.S. is all about the meat spoiling in the refrigerators.
Venezuela was not perfect before Chávez. Indeed, there was a bit too much corruption and cronyism. Nevertheless, the lights always worked, and the favorite drinks were always cold in the refrigerator.

Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog...ndlelight.html

And Columbia is giving the Venezuelan pregnant women condoms because they are resorting to you know what because they have no money for food! So, lets romp in the dirt and make more mouths to feed! What sick person does this!!!

How disgusting! Do not bring these dumb people here. Not one dime!

And you all voting for socialism...go take your summer vacation in Venezuela and do not come back...take Crazy Cortez and Bernie with you!

As sun sets, Caracas empties...

Diseases surge...

Moscow sending more troops?

Looks like downtown L.A., San Francisco, and every Democrat run city!

Stunning Photos Reveal "Zombie Apocalypse" Conditions As Caracas "Empties Under Darkness"



Eerie photographs of Venezuelan streets after dusk reveal an expanding humanitarian disaster zone...

Sun, 04/07/2019 - 13:35
169 SHARES

New reports by the Associated Press and Human Rights Watch paint a grim and increasingly desperate picture of life inside Venezuela's populous capital city, especially when the sun goes down and entire neighborhoods become "no-go" zones.
A series of AP photographs entitled As the sun sets, Venezuela’s capital empties presents Caracas as essentially becoming a ghost town after sunset, and depict infrastructure collapse and lack of services like electricity, water, and public transport to the point that eerie scenes of the empty streets and stores feel like a zombie apocalypse has hit.

Venezuelan capital of Caracas, AP photo When dusk turns to night, the AP reports, "the once-thriving metropolis empties under darkness" after recently "a string of devastating nationwide blackouts last month dramatized the decay."
Horrifyingly for common Venezuelans, years of mismanagement under the Maduro government and externally imposed isolation along with biting US sanctions have further sent Venezuela's health care system into "utter collapse," a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report also finds.
The population of has witnessed a rapid resurgence of preventable deadly diseases.
AP: "When the sun goes down in Venezuela's capital, the once-thriving metropolis empties under darkness." This has resulted in the return of rare diseases once thought almost completely eradicated. Commenting on the latest HRW report, which urges the United Nations to declare the Venezuela crisis a complex humanitarian emergency, The Washington Post summarizes:

The new report paints an extremely grim picture of life in Venezuela, whose once-prosperous economy has imploded because of mismanagement and corruption under Maduro, who has been president since the 2013 death of revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez. Oil exports have fallen by more than half.
In addition to widespread malnutrition and sharply increased levels of maternal and infant mortality, more than 9,300 cases of measles have been reported since June 2017, compared to a single case recorded between 2008 and 2015.

For example, "Venezuela did not experience a single case of diphtheria between 2006 and 2015," the HRW report finds, "but more than 2,500 suspected cases have been reported since July 2016."
Image source: AP With near constant electricity shortages and sometime complete mass outages, once popular shops in upscale Caracas neighborhoods have struggled to stay open at all.
The AP describes of the below photo, "An ice-cream shop sits empty in the La Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, early evening Tuesday, March 19, 2019."
And the report adds, "Often just a single business along a city block is able to stay open in Caracas, awaiting sparse customers."

Especially high crime areas of Caracas go completely vacant at night, essentially becoming "no go" zones as they were already unsafe even before a spate of recent blackouts meant lower visibility and lack of police and security.
US officials have repeatedly blamed President Nicolas Maduro for overseeing a socialist system of vast corruption; however, Caracas officials have blamed a decade of US sanctions for exacerbating the suffering of ordinary citizens.
Image source: AP Once billboard-lined busy highways over the past weeks appear increasingly empty, especially near dusk. Now billboard spaces are most often empty.
Venezuelans have also had to traverse long distances on foot to get to work, or complete simple tasks like retrieving food and supplies, with previously reliable public transport functioning less if at all in many neighborhoods.
Image source: AP Via the AP: "Billboards often have nothing to promote, their skeletal framework bare long after the wind has ripped away old advertising."

Other recent reports have described a return to the Middle Ages across many parts of the Latin American country, with descriptions of rotting and souring food on supermarket shelves, citizens making oil lamps, and Caracas residents washing dishes in nearby El Avila mountain streams due to lack of electricity to the city's water pumps.
The issue of water access has become dire, though the Red Cross has this month begun delivering emergency aid, allowed into the country for the first time since the now months long political crisis following Maduro's reelection began.
Image source: AP The AP describes a local street side economy of "impromptu shops" moving out of darkened stores and buildings:

Used shoes for sale are displayed on the sidewalk of a graffiti-filled street in Caracas, Venezuela, early Monday, March 25, 2019. Residents desperate for cash transform patches of sidewalk into their impromptu shops, laying out old items as merchandise.

Terrible conditions akin to a scene out of the classic zombie apocalypse film 28 Days Later are described:

As dusk falls, many storefronts are just graffiti-scrawled security doors chained shut. Often just a single business along a city block is able to stay open, awaiting sparse customers. Others close earlier, like a beauty salon, its few remaining clients forced to decide between the simple luxury of haircut or buying food.
Caracas’ La Mercedes neighborhood, famous for its upscale shopping and nightlife, hasn’t been spared. Many of its pubs and fancy restaurants are devoid of waiters and customers. A shopping mall keeps it lights on, but the doors lock hours earlier than they did before, when they teemed with life.

Darkened streets of Caracas on March 21, via the AP. And further, even high-rises appear abandoned once the sun goes down each night:

High-rise buildings stand unfinished, the workers having long ago abandoned their jobs. Windows are covered over with cardboard rather than finished with glass.
Residents desperate for cash transform patches of sidewalk into their impromptu shops, laying out old shoes or second-hand shirts as merchandise.
The poor and hungry scour through household trash, scattering it across street corners before it’s collected, grabbing anything they can use or eat.

A number of Venezuelan skyscrapers have long sat half-finished and abandoned. Over the past decade squatters have increasingly filled them.
Sadly, Venezuelans' misery will likely continue with no end in sight, especially given that Washington continues to talk heightened sanctions and war, with the "all options on the table" mantra repeated each week in support of anti-Maduro opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Simultaneously, the Maduro regime appears to be hunkered down for a long period of economic war and isolation, which will only make corruption thrive as a means of survival. Little is expected to change.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...vel-conditions