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Technology

Venezuela has suffered power blackouts for days

13 March 2019

Venezuela

Meridith Kohut/New York Times/Redux/eyevine

MILLIONS of Venezuelans remain without electricity nearly a week after a power substation failed. At the time of going to press, the blackout, which began on 7 March, had entered its sixth day. It has led to looting, hospital deaths and communication outages across the country.

The power failure is affecting 16 states. In the capital, Caracas, electricity has returned intermittently, and the metro system is out of service. Although oil rich, the country relies on hydropower for electricity. The government has attributed the blackout to a fault at the Guri hydropower plant, which provides 80 per cent of the…

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