Venezuelans search for water as new blackouts hit nationwide

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>More power outages have hit Venezuela after the nation’s worst blackouts earlier this month&comma; knocking out water pumps and forcing some Caracas residents to spend hours searching for bottled water or to fill up containers at springs in the city’s hills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Frustrated Venezuelans wondered how long they would have to endure the new outages&comma; which started on Monday and again shut down schools&comma; offices and factories&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The power crisis has sharpened a political struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido&comma; who urged supporters to protest as a response to Venezuela’s deteriorating infrastructure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128908" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128908" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;F28EE3D6-370C-4607-BBC9-F73F5DA21ED4&period;jpeg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128908" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;F28EE3D6-370C-4607-BBC9-F73F5DA21ED4&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"400" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128908" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A woman fills a container with water from a truck in Caracas&comma; Venezuela<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We can’t be passive&comma;” said Mr Guaido&comma; who announced a protest campaign titled &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Operation Liberty” that includes planned demonstrations on Saturday and on April 6&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Wednesday morning&comma; a new disruption to the power grid left 91&percnt; of the country offline&comma; reversing a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;partial recovery” since the start of the latest nationwide blackouts&comma; according to Netblocks&comma; a group that monitors internet censorship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>By afternoon&comma; the flow of power remained erratic&comma; returning in some areas only to go off again in a pattern that is now familiar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It comes and goes&period; Last night it came back at 10 o’clock at night and at five o’clock in the morning it left again&period; It hasn’t come back since&comma;” said Luis Jose Vargas&comma; a 48-year-old baker carrying a container of water filled from a brook&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;With water&comma;” Mr Vargas said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;it’s the same&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128909" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128909" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;850122EF-5411-4100-8DC9-F0E1688328FC&period;jpeg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-128909" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;03&sol;850122EF-5411-4100-8DC9-F0E1688328FC&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"400" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128909" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A men collects water from a brook in Caracas&comma; Venezuela<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As the outage stretched into evening&comma; people howled with anger in the street and from apartment windows in one neighbourhood where the power&comma; which had returned for some hours&comma; went out yet again&period; Some cursed Mr Maduro&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nancy Villasinda said she spent more than four hours trying in vain to find a shop selling water&period; The government had said city water pumps were starting to work again&comma; but then another power cut hit&comma; Ms Villasinda said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I suppose that’s why we still don’t have water&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Maduro’s government said schools and state offices and industries were closed on Wednesday as workers tried to restore electricity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Few shops in Caracas&comma; the capital&comma; were open and many streets were clear of the usual weekday traffic&period; The government ordered schools and businesses to remain closed on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Maduro said the outage was caused by a sniper attack on the nation’s electrical system using a long-range gun in a telephone call broadcast on Venezuela’s state television Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said the damage was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;worse than any Venezuelan could have imagined” but that he hoped to have good news about the restoration of power in the coming hours&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also announced a march Saturday to rival Mr Guaido’s&comma; dubbed the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Operation in Defence of Liberty”&comma; and urged pro-government groups&comma; some of which are armed&comma; to ensure there is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;zero guarimba”&comma; a reference to opposition protests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We’re never going to give up&comma;” he vowed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>What&&num;8217&semi;s happening there should not be happening<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>After the last blackouts started on March 7&comma; the situation became increasingly desperate for many Venezuelans when water pumps stopped working without power&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Looters ransacked hundreds of businesses in the city of Maracaibo&period; The blackouts eased nearly a week later&comma; but many areas only had intermittent power even after the government said the problem was solved&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Maduro&comma; who is backed by Russia&comma; says he is the target of a US-led coup plot and accuses the US and the Venezuelan opposition of sabotaging the country’s decrepit power system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>US officials and Mr Guaido say the accusation is an attempt to divert attention away from years of government mismanagement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The United States was the first nation to recognise Mr Guaido as interim president&comma; asserting that Mr Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate&comma; and has stepped up sanctions and other diplomatic measures in hopes of forcing him to give up power&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Wednesday&comma; Mr Guaido’s wife was welcomed at the White House as part of a tour to rally international support for the Venezuelan opposition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are with Venezuela&comma;” President Donald Trump said at the start of a meeting with Fabiana Rosales&comma; the wife of opposition leader Mr Guaido&comma; and other opposition figures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What’s happening there should not be happening&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e3525f75b3d">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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