Venezuela: Resistance or disintegration?

[angelburst29]

One of my burning questions has been, "Why hasn't Maduro arrested Guaido"? This article might point to one possibility - that Guaido has parliamentary immunity as head of the parliament. All the headlines announcing Guaido's return and Bolton's bold warning, "not to arrest Guaido at the Border" were basically "Bully-rants" hoping that Maduro would play into their hands?

March 5, 2019 - Izvestia: Guaido allowed to freely cross Venezuela’s border
Press review: Persian Gulf awaits Putin’s arrival and why Guaido wasn’t arrested at border

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido returned to the Latin American country after a 10-day hiatus, and was supposed to be detained for leaving the country based on a court ruling. However, according to Guaido himself, no one arrested him at the border. A source in US political circles told Izvestia, right now Washington is not ready to pour a lot of money into a military solution to solve the conflict.

"Expectations were that the opposition with feasible foreign aid, would overthrow the Nicolas Maduro regime with its own forces. However, it turned out that the Venezuelans did not have enough protest potential for an independent change of government," the source told the newspaper. Meanwhile, Guaido warned that his possible arrest would be the current president’s "last mistake", since it would result in mobilizing the population.

The opposition leader’s return is detrimental to incumbent President Nicolas Maduro, Head of the Center for Political Studies of the Institute for Latin American Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences Zbigniew Ivanovsky told Izvestia. "If Juan Guaido is outside the country, then the opposition is beheaded," he noted. "So far, President Maduro is in control of the situation in the country, but it is difficult to say now what will come next," the analyst said, commenting on the current situation in the country. Ivanovsky noted that as head of the parliament, Guaido should have parliamentary immunity.

According to Professor of Theory and History of International Relations at the St. Petersburg State University Victor Heifetz, given the current situation, Guaido’s arrest would only lead to further escalation and new economic sanctions. Against the background of the imposed restrictions, when Washington froze $7 bln belonging to the state-owned oil corporation PDVSA, and its subsidiary Citgo practically came under US control, additional measures would be a heavy burden on Caracas.

 

[mabar]

Electric sabotage generates 'blackout' in at least 10 states of Venezuela --it has subtittles

This Thursday there was a sabotage of the Venezuelan electrical system. It is reported that 10 states are without electricity and 18 are partially due to a power outage registered around 5 p.m. local time. Venezuelan Energy Minister Luis Motta Dominguez said they are already working to restore service as soon as possible, but denounced that this fact is part of an economic war against the country. teleSUR
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

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[mabar]

From what observed in social media (twitter) people are beyond angry, accusing the government of corrupt, inept, etc... that, Guaidó is capitalizing.

#ApagonMasivo hashtag on Twitter

On Jun 25 @vtolosapaz tweeted: "Un excelente resumen de cómo Cambiemos m.." - read what others are saying and join the conversation.

twitter.com

https://twitter.com/hashtag/7Mar?src=hashtag_click

The Venezuelan Electric Corporation denounces a "sabotage" after the blackout that affects much of the country --spanish

Caracas is one of the affected cities, and authorities have reported that they are working to restore service in the coming hours.

An electrical blackout has taken place this Thursday afternoon in several states of Venezuela. The failure, which occurred around five o'clock in the afternoon, left the Venezuelan capital and more than half of the country's 23 states without electricity, according to local media reports.

In this regard, the National Electric Corporation has announced that they have sabotaged the generation of electricity at the El Guri power plant, and the incident is part of an "electric war against the state. In addition, it has been reported that they are working to recover the service.

According to the statements of the Minister for Electric Energy, Luis Motta, the effect has occurred in the "backbone of electricity", located in the state of Bolivar, and estimated that "the electric service will be restored in about three hours. --that had not happend, though -according to social media

Faced with the power failure, the Caracas subway was paralyzed and forced hundreds of people to take other alternatives in the streets to try to get to their homes. In addition, it has been reported that most of the traffic lights were out of service, which caused great traffic congestion.

After the power outage, there were failures in the telephone signal and the fall of the Internet.

Users of social networks have reported the absence of service in Caracas, Vargas, Lara, Carabobo, Cojedes, Aragua, Táchira, Mérida, Miranda, Nueva Esparta and Zulia, among others.

The infrastructure "attacked," according to the minister, is considered the fourth most powerful hydroelectric plant in the world, which is only surpassed by a binational project between Paraguay and Brazil, and two power plants in China.

For his part, the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, took advantage of the blackout to call for citizen mobilization against the current government on Saturday.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

 

[sToRmR1dR]

From what observed in social media (twitter) people are beyond angry, accusing the government of corrupt, inept, etc... that, Guaidó is capitalizing.

The Venezuelan Electric Corporation denounces a "sabotage" after the blackout that affects much of the country --spanish

'Where is piggy there is stinky'.

Wrong! The US 'foreign policy' (circus) is bringing darkness to the world.

Pompeo on Venezuela Blackout: 'Maduro’s Policies Bring Nothing but Darkness'
08.03.2019

 

[angelburst29]

"Expectations were that the opposition with feasible foreign aid, would overthrow the Nicolas Maduro regime with its own forces. However, it turned out that the Venezuelans did not have enough protest potential for an independent change of government," the source told the newspaper. Meanwhile, Guaido warned that his possible arrest would be the current president’s "last mistake", since it would result in mobilizing the population.

Pompeo on Venezuela Blackout: 'Maduro’s Policies Bring Nothing but Darkness'
08.03.2019

The above headline - needs "an adjustment" to facts on the ground ...

Maduro on Venezuela Blackout: "Pompeo's Policies Bring Nothing but Darkness"

No doubt, the three dark Overlords (Pompeo-Bolton-Pence) had a heavy hand ($$$) in developments? Guaido's failed to get arrested at the Border, compounded by another failure to gather the public sector unions to disrupt utilities, his desperate "dream-team" took another step to solidify Guaido's vow - to paralyze the public sector. This blackout might create the opposite effect, if enough citizen's blame to real culprits and turn "against Guaido"?

Venezuela's Guaido vows to paralyze public sector to squeeze Maduro
Guaido said the strikes would be staggered and aim to paralyze the public sector.

Venezuela grinds to a halt as blackout drags into a second day

People are seen on the street during a blackout in Caracas, Venezuela March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Venezuela shut schools and suspended the workday on Friday as the worst blackout in decades paralyzed most of the troubled nation for a second day, spurring outrage among citizens already suffering from hyperinflation and a crippling recession.

 

[mabar]

Venezuela’s minister says major power outage likely caused by ‘cyberattack’, points finger at US

A cyber-attack is likely the reason for the major blackout that left most of Venezuela in darkness, a Maduro government official said, hinting that the US may be involved in the offensive.

As Venezuela is still reeling from a nationwide blackout, Nicolas Maduro’s government says the emergency was the result of an external influence. The major power outage was likely prompted by a cyber-attack against the Guri hydroelectric plant which produces 80% of the country’s electricity, Jorge Rodriguez, Venezuela’s communication and information minister said on Friday, according to local media.

The official went on to hint that US Senator and fierce anti-Maduro campaigner Marco Rubio may be linked to the offensive. Rodriguez found it suspicious that shortly after the failure Rubio shared specific information on Twitter about the emergency that even local authorities were not aware of at that time.

"How did Marco Rubio know [of the attack] a few minutes later that the backup generators had failed? At that time, no one knew yet. "
...

How did he know minutes later?

Rodriguez's words come after U.S. Senator Marco Rubio pronounced on the power failure in the South American country.

The nationwide power failure in #Venezuela now going on its 25th hour is causing devastating long term economic damage.

In the blink of an eye the countries entire aluminum production capacity was destroyed by damage caused by the blackout.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) 8 de marzo de 2019

In this regard, Rodriguez said that Rubio's tuit was "very revealing" because with the balance made up to that moment they knew that the attack had been perpetrated in the backup generators.

"The reinforcement generators in the Automatic Regulation System, is a specialized system that regulates the machines of the Guri (power plant). Attacking that system is like a brain going crazy," Rodriguez said.

"How did Marco Rubio know a few minutes after [the attack] that the backup generators had failed? At that moment, nobody knew yet," the vice president said.

On the other hand, Rodriguez denied information about alleged deaths in hospitals during the blackout, and explained that a contingency plan was put in place to maintain power plants in all medical centers.

Rubio himself published a sarcastic tuit in which he apologizes "to the people of Venezuela" for having "put bad pressure on the application of 'electronic attack'" that he "downloaded" from Apple. "It was my mistake," added the senator, who recently outraged the Internet with a bloody image of Gaddafi in which many saw a message for Maduro's government.

Tonight the “Baghdad Bob” of #Caracas@jorgerpsuv revealed I caused the nationwide & ongoing electric power outage in #Venezuela.

My apologies to people of Venezuela. I must have pressed the wrong thing on the “electronic attack” app I downloaded from Apple. My bad. https://t.co/5oZURMSnrB
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) 8 марта 2019 г.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

 

[Voyageur]

Venezuela’s minister says major power outage likely caused by ‘cyberattack’, points finger at US

In this regard, Rodriguez said that Rubio's tuit was "very revealing" because with the balance made up to that moment they knew that the attack had been perpetrated in the backup generators.

"The reinforcement generators in the Automatic Regulation System, is a specialized system that regulates the machines of the Guri (power plant). Attacking that system is like a brain going crazy," Rodriguez said.

"How did Marco Rubio know a few minutes after [the attack] that the backup generators had failed? At that moment, nobody knew yet," the vice president said.

My first thought was a Stuxnet (or variant), however I don't know.

From the company Symantec's own publication 'Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector' (pdf):

Many power utilities companies fear disruptive attacks the most, regardless of whether it is done by internal or external attackers. The energy sector has a high potential for critical disruption through sabotage attacks. Any interruption to the power grid would cause substantial chaos and cascading effects resulting in financial loss.
In the past there have been quite a few attacks that included targets in the energy sector. Some of these were more focused, like
Stuxnet, Duqu, Shamoon/Disttrack and Night Dragon. Others saw power companies targeted among many other sectors, such as
Hidden Lynx, Nitro, Flamer, Net Traveler and Elderwood to name a few.
One of the biggest examples, and a game changer for many organizations, was Stuxnet. This targeted sabotage attack, which is believed to have been aimed against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran, made clear what could be done through cyberattacks.

 

[mabar]

The article is from 2016, they (opposition) had been having a lot of time to think what they can do and absolve themselves ... Will it go for long? .. or how long? ...

Venezuela's Right Wing Confesses to 17 years of Political Delinquency: The Amnesty Bill

---

Commenting on the massive blackout in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro has declared this Saturday that "at midday hours we received a new attack and overthrew everything achieved so far.

The Venezuelan leader said he had been informed on Thursday "of a process of general failures at the electrical level," after which were carried out "recovery maneuvers that are usually done. "More than 150 substations in the country have attacked us," he said.

A street during the blackout in Caracas, Venezuela, March 8, 2019.Venezuela claims it was a cyber attack that caused the massive blackout.
"At 6 or 7 p.m. the normal process of national reconnection recovery was underway, when suddenly we received an international cyberattack against the brain of our electric company, and the entire reconnection process was automatically overturned," continued the president.

"For the first time I'm going to tell this, I'm going to try to count as far as I can, because we are in the full process of investigation and correction in depth, because there are many infiltrators attacking from inside the electric company," he denounced.

Maduro explained that after that fact, "immediately began the second process of reconnection, and manual. According to him, it has not yet been possible "to fully diagnose why the computerized brain and its different sources of power had remained absolutely black.

A fire and electromagnetic attacks
At one o'clock in the morning on March 8, said the president, when part of Caracas had already been recovered, a new attack took place. "We discovered that they were carrying out attacks of high scientific generation, of high technology, electromagnetic attacks against the transmission lines".

He added that at the same time at dawn "a fire broke out in a fundamental transmission station in the south of the country.

According to the Venezuelan leader, much progress was made yesterday, and this morning "we had reconnected 70% of the country" when "we received another cyber attack at noon". The attack took place against "one of the generation sources that was working perfectly, and that disrupted the reconnection process and knocked down everything that was achieved until noon," he said.

"The reconnection process, which has already been restarted, must be definitive and stable within the next few hours. To guarantee peace in all communities, we are going to protect ourselves from attacks," added the Venezuelan president.

The supporters of Nicolás Maduro's government, on the one hand, and the followers of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, on the other, are demonstrating this Saturday in the streets of Caracas, after the massive power cut that affected almost the entire territory of the country this Thursday.

Chavismo, which described the blackout as "electric sabotage" orchestrated by the U.S. with the support of the opposition, called for a march from the headquarters of the telecommunications company CANTV to El Calvario Park, in the center of the Venezuelan capital, to show its repulsion against the attacks against the National Electric System.

 

[mabar]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104420496005836800

One of Venezuela’s main substations that was keeping electricity flowing is now on fire. Venezuela has lost power on a larger scale than originally on Thursday. All hydroelectric plants in the south are basically useless now

They don’t have enough power anyway to provide Venezuela with electricity now that Guri power plants substation is also broke.

Huge Fire Engulf Electrical Substation in Venezuela

The videos from social media published by the portal show a fire and a black pillar of smoke above the electrical substation located near the state capital of Ciudad Bolivar.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1104448932158099457

---
Juan Guaidó does not rule out invoking article 187, which authorizes foreign military interference in Venezuela.

The self-proclaimed "president in charge" of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, has asserted this Saturday during a rally in Caracas of those who oppose the government of Nicolás Maduro, that he will continue to act in accordance with the national Constitution and has not ruled out the application of Article 187 "when the time comes".

Article 187 of the current Constitution establishes in its numeral 11 that the National Assembly is responsible for "authorizing the use of Venezuelan military missions abroad or foreign missions in the country.

 

[angelburst29]

I'm getting the impression, Guaido is trying to foment a Civil War because he holds "absolutely no power" inside the country? His only real chance of success - is if he manages to install a parallel government and continues to cash in on the oil revenues, so Washington can proceed with their Coup and arrest Government members on trumped-up charges?

Venezuela's Guaido calls for massive protest as blackout drags on

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday called on citizens nationwide to travel to the capital Caracas for a protest against socialist President Nicolas Maduro, as the country's worst blackout in decades dragged on for a third day.

Venezuela enters fourth day of blackout as Maduro blames U.S. for power outage
Venezuelans woke up to a fourth day of an unprecedented nationwide blackout on Sunday, leaving residents concerned about the impacts of the lack of electricity on the South American country's health, communications and transport systems.

 

[goyacobol]

I'm getting the impression, Guaido is trying to foment a Civil War because he holds "absolutely no power" inside the country? His only real chance of success - is if he manages to install a parallel government and continues to cash in on the oil revenues, so Washington can proceed with their Coup and arrest Government members on trumped-up charges?

I think the opposition was not asking for Guaido so he may not get their support.

Capriles: Partidos no apoyaban autojuramentación de Guaidó

The ex-governor said the majority rejected the action.THE FORMER GOVERNOR SAID THE MAJORITY REJECTED THE ACTION.
2 February 2019 - Miranda's former governor Henrique Capriles said during an interview with AFP that most Venezuelan opposition parties did not agree with Juan Guaidó's swearing in as interim president of the country, and that the proclamation on 23 January surprised them.

In the interview, he affirms that they considered that the action could "unleash a political confrontation (...) There was doubt within the opposition that this public act would bring the consequence (that) the government would close the National Assembly.

He stressed that in the foreground, if what had already happened happened, the opposition hoped to have the support of a few countries in the region, such as Brazil, the United States, Colombia, as well as the support of OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro.

"The account of the opposition was (only) Brazil, the United States and Colombia, in terms of recognition of Guaidó, and the secretary general of the OAS, Luis Almagro. We are all surprised by the domino effect there has been," he said.

This note has been read approximately 18363 times.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

I also think the power plant sabotages (if true) may backfire too.

Vicepresidenta Delcy Rodríguez denunció participación de grupos extremistas en ataque al Sistema Eléctrico Nacional

9 March 2019 - Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez denounced Thursday the participation of extreme right-wing groups in the attack perpetrated against the National Electric System (SEN) that left the country without service.

"We have no doubt about the participation of these extremist groups in this major attack on the National Electric System," said the vice-president through Radio Nacional de Venezuela.

She pointed out that the SEN has been the target of acts of sabotage in a permanent way and in this sense she affirmed that those who committed these attacks are the same ones that "burn living people, are the same ones that burn the food of the people, are the same ones that burn the medicines of the people, the medicines for children and elderly adults, are the same ones that want to disturb the tranquility of the Republic, are the same ones that want to disturb the good course and development of the people of Venezuela and of our beloved Homeland".

He pointed out the almost immediate action taken by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio three minutes after the aggression against the SEN was perpetrated. "Just 3 minutes after this attack took place, this aggression came out again Mr. Marco Rubio to report, as a reporter of the crime, on the event that was developing in our homeland," he stressed.

"Well, Mr. Marco Rubio, in a few hours the people of Venezuela and the international community will also know the truth and we will know that their rotten hands are involved in this event by the hand of their genuflexic lackeys who permanently attack the people of Venezuela," he said.

He thanked the workers of the Ministry of People's Power for Electric Power and Corpoelec for their efforts to restore electric service to the Venezuelan population, while expressing his recognition of the high level of awareness of the Venezuelan people in the face of this new attack on their tranquility.

"The coup d'état failed, the interventionist plan failed and these plans of destabilization, of attack on public services, of attack on the food of the people, on medicines are also going to fail, because united Venezuela, Venezuela as a whole, Venezuela in its majority rejects definitively those extremist and terrorist groups that attempt against their dignity and against their integrity", he concluded.


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

However, what if it was due to maintenance problems?

Incendio que provocó una sobrecarga sería la verdadera causa del apagón, según líder de la Federación de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica

10/03.- Recovering the system could take several more hours. "Maybe Sunday night or Monday morning the service has been completely re-established," said Alí Briceño, Executive Secretary of the Federation of Electrical Industry Workers.

The problem is in the transmission line, he explained: "From the electrical substation Malena, located north of the state of Bolivar, on the banks of the Orinoco River, to the Guri dam, which is in Puerto Ordaz, the weed had grown so much that there was a vegetation fire that caused the 3 lines of 765 kW, 2 by heating and the other by overload.

And he added: "Automatically the protections acted and the machines of the Guri were extinguished. When that happens you have to calibrate the frequency and the people who have the capacity and technical knowledge are no longer with us.

He pointed out that the phenomenon of migration has had repercussions on the payrolls of the state-owned electricity company. "The corporation's eminently technical staff is gone," he said.

He said that Guri's dependence is close to 80%, so that the thermoelectric plants cannot supply electricity to the population: "On top of that, no maintenance has been done to the transformers or anything, which makes us adrift and without any guarantee.

Briceño explained that the reincorporation to the interconnected system that comes from the Guri is done by states. "What happens is that there are more than 20 entities outside, so if the income is very accelerated then there is the risk of another collapse and must be restarted, as already happened," he said. He reported that 70% of the country's transformers have completed their useful life.

"Apart from lack of maintenance, there may be other sensitive events," he warned.

There was no "cyber attack.

Briceó dismissed the possibility that there had been a cyber attack on Guri: "We have to clarify that the government, especially Minister Jorge Rodríguez, lies with cynicism and slovenliness. That's impossible, even more so when we've already located what the fault was.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

I don't know if the above is true or not but it is the first I've seen it mentioned.

 

[mabar]

However, what if it was due to maintenance problems?

The blackout occurred on Thursday, March 7 at almost 5 p.m., the fire reported here WATCH Huge Fire Engulf Electrical Substation in Venezuela was on March 9. In the article you posted, it mentions "From the Malena electric substation, located in the north of Bolívar state, on the banks of the Orinoco river, to the Guri dam, which is in Puerto Ordaz, the weed had grown in such a way that there was a vegetation fire that caused the 3 lines of 765 kW, 2 by heating and the other by overload." It could be that the fire was for lack of maintenance, and coincidentally coincided that it occurred in those days, although, it does not mentioned the date of the fire. I can't be sure it's the same fire as the sputnik reported either, yet.

 

[goyacobol]

The blackout occurred on Thursday, March 7 at almost 5 p.m., the fire reported here WATCH Huge Fire Engulf Electrical Substation in Venezuela was on March 9. In the article you posted, it mentions "From the Malena electric substation, located in the north of Bolívar state, on the banks of the Orinoco river, to the Guri dam, which is in Puerto Ordaz, the weed had grown in such a way that there was a vegetation fire that caused the 3 lines of 765 kW, 2 by heating and the other by overload." It could be that the fire was for lack of maintenance, and coincidentally coincided that it occurred in those days, although, it does not mentioned the date of the fire. I can't be sure it's the same fire as the sputnik reported either, yet.

Sorry if that is not related to the Thursday blackout. I thought there was more than one substation affected in the power grid. It may be that the wider grid has maintenance problems that don't help the system as a whole, I just don't know. I had to use DeepL since my Spanish is not so good.

 

[Windmill knight]

Marco Rubio has been tweeting non-stop about the Venezuelan blackout, and at some point he tweeted this (can't find it on his wall so it looks like he deleted it):

Today another transformer explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout.

The result? Critically ill patients have died, the #Caracas metro remains out of service & few if any flights have arrived at or departed from Caracas in over 20 hours.

The funny thing is that it turns out that the 'German Dam' doesn't exist - he confused the name of the journalist, Germán Dam, with some imaginary dam from Germany. It has now been confirmed that the journalist did not explode.

Marco Rubio blames Venezuelan power outages on explosion at imaginary ‘German Dam’

Sen. Marco Rubio was besieged by social media mockery after declaring that power outages in Caracas were caused by an explosion at a ‘German Dam’ – the name of journalist who reported on the blackouts.

www.rt.com

Another remarkable item: The truth made its way to the New York Times! A little late, mind you (like 2 weeks), but there it is:

Footage Contradicts U.S. Claim That Nicolás Maduro Burned Aid Convoy (Published 2019)

A reconstruction of the moment when a truck bearing humanitarian supplies was set on fire shows the likely cause was a Molotov cocktail thrown by a protester.

www.nytimes.com

 

[irjO]

I’m really upset, I can’t imagine all these people who rely on electricity which is the majority, I mean who wouldn’t? Specially in the hot cities where temperatures goes higher than 38 Celsius and is very humid.
I know there are countries that face this on a very heavy storm where power goes off for days after. But in Venezuela, hospitals for example doesn’t have the best medical equipments and they depend on electricity big time and aren’t prepared for more than 2 days with no electricity.
Besides that and because of this a lot of groceries store are selling food in US dollars cash or with the local currency in cash which is almost impossible to find. They literally are destroying the country economically speaking.