update: Though some parts of Venezuela's power grid have reportedly begun to come back online after the country was plunged into nation-wide darkness beginning Thursday evening, the mass blackout crisis continues, which Caracas has blamed on US-orchestrated saboteurs.
To prevent further "sabotage" Venezuela's Defense Ministry has vowed in an official statement via state TV social media channels to deploy armed forces to protect the national electricity system for the duration of the power outage.
“All the security agencies, civil protection and the nation’s integral defense system are deployed to protect and help the people across the country,” a statement said, via Bloomberg. This as official accusations against Washington for conducting what Maduro previously called a US "electricity war" have become even more strident.
The defense ministry previously vowed to put more security patrols on the streets after dark, as already high-crime areas of Caracas are now considered no-go zones as a result of the blackout.
#LIVE | Venezuela's @jorgerpsuv calls Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo 'psychopaths' for attacking the electrical system for political gain. Asks them to think of the children in hospitals who suffer. pic.twitter.com/NBEewSS64g— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) March 8, 2019
Meanwhile the problems now appear to be compounding as Venezuela's already aging and mismanaged infrastructure continues to collapse in a domino effect of problems precipitated by the electrical grid mass failure.
The AP summarizing the worsening crisis, now hitting many sectors:
Venezuela’s worst power and communications outage on Friday deepened a sense of isolation and decay, endangering hospital patients, forcing schools and businesses to close and cutting people off from their families, friends and the outside world. While electricity returned to some parts of Caracas nearly 24 hours after lights, phones and the internet stopped working, the blackout was another harsh blow to a country paralyzed by economic and political turmoil.
Payments can't be processed, resulting in cash-only transactions, which is problematic considering the bolivar is worth nothing:
Many of the few shops that were open were only accepting cash because without electricity and the internet they couldn’t process debit card payments, a common method of doing transactions in Venezuela since hyperinflation transformed the bolivar into one of the world’s most worthless currencies.
Venezuela's worst ever power outage in recent history has continued since Thursday, as video and photos continue to come out of the cash and resource strapped country showing entire cities blanketed in darkness.
Stretching into day two of the mass electrical shutdown, 23 out of 24 states remain in darkness, according to the AP, in a prolonged situation now reaching crisis levels given reports that hospitals are struggling to keep back-up generators running and many businesses are forced to remain shuttered.
Rubio Demands US Initiate "Widespread Unrest" In Venezuela
Predictably during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, Republican chairman Marco Rubio condemned Venezuela's Maduro as a "clear danger" and a "threat to the national security of the US." To be expected the hearing was filled with plenty of threats and talk of flipping "military elites" and enforcing tougher sanctions.
But perhaps unexpected was just how out in the open and brazen Rubio's own admissions of how far he's willing to go in promoting regime change in Caracas. In public testimony he called on the US to promote “widespreadunrest” in order to eventually bring down the Maduro government.
It appears Rubio is now urging the White House to initiate a full-on "Syria option" for Venezuela, which implies covert arming, funding, and militarization of the opposition to reach peak escalation and confrontation with the government, perhaps inviting broader external military intervention, similar to efforts to topple Syria's Assad over the past years.
During Thursday's Senate hearing, there appeared a willingness to admit the fact that it appears Maduro is not going anywhere anytime soon, for example, when the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said, "Confronting tyranny requires sustained commitment. But Maduro is not invincible. He's far from it."
Though Maduro has survived the latest round of international pressure to succumb to internal coup efforts led by a US-supported opposition, the fires of unrest Venezuela don't look to be extinguishable anytime soon.
As Ben Norton also pointed out on Thursday while speaking of using "humanitarian aid" as a pretext for regime change: "They're not even hiding it at this point."
Indeed, Rubio personally promised just this during hearing: "To those in Venezuela: Your fight for freedom and restoration of democracy is our fight, and the free world has not and will not forget you," he said, and added, "We [the United States] will be [focused] on this as long as it takes." Earlier in the day Rubio told Fox News that:
More ominously, Rubio predicted during the hearing, "Venezuela is going to enter a period of suffering no nation in our hemisphere has confronted in modern history," in reference to the Venezuelan military blocking US aid shipments and tightening sanctions.
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