Despite having some of the world's largest energy reserves, Venezuela is increasingly struggling to maintain basic electrical service, a growing challenge for President Hugo Chavez. The OPEC nation has suffered three nationwide blackouts this year, and chronic power shortages have sparked protests from the western Andean highlands to San Felix, a city of mostly poor industrial workers in the sweltering south.
Shoddy electrical service is now one of Venezuelans' top concerns, according to a recent poll, and may be a factor in elections next month for governors and mayors in which Chavez allies are expected to lose key posts, in part on complaints of poor services. The transmission system is also suffering from underinvestment, which makes it vulnerable to the failures that caused this year's blackouts. Just last year, Venezuela's electrical operations were nationalized in a wave of state takeovers-- since then, large-scale investments in the country's infrastructure have been nonexistent.
No comments:
Post a Comment