Venezuelan discontent over power cuts

[steven johnson]

Source: UPI

CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Public discontent over renewed disruptions in electricity supplies reached new levels as the government of President Hugo Chavez announced further cutbacks in business and domestic use of power.

Officials said the cutbacks are a direct result of low water levels in the Guri hydroelectric dam, one of the largest in the world, astride the Caroni River in Bolivar state. In normal conditions the dam generates enough power to meet the needs of most of Venezuela, but persistent drought has forced the shutdown of parts of the complex.

Critics of Chavez within and outside the political opposition blame government mismanagement of the resource for the current crisis, which began intermittently earlier this year.

Chavez has accused business and industry managers of wasting electricity and warned factory owners of hefty fines for careless use of electricity supplies. But electricity cuts have become endemic and have impacted on economy and lifestyles, as shutdowns play havoc with refrigeration and other critical business and domestic uses of power.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/12/24/Venezuelan-discontent-over-power-cuts/UPI-51591261699278/

---

Looks like the predicted political instability from climate change is taking it's toll.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x223589

[onehandle]

1. Are they rationing toilet paper yet?

Whatever happened to the Soviet Union, anyway?

[Downwinder]

2. They still have roofs over their heads.

[EFerrari]

4. How you ever been through a drought?

Living in California and several droughts, I have. They don't involve rationing toilet paper but toilet flushing.

[Kalun D]

6. Trying to Equate

Trying to equate socialism with communism is a trick from the right wingers and corporate dems.

Don't fall for what the TV (sheeple indoctrination tool) tells you. Chavez is socialist not communist.

[pattmarty]

14. So is Bernie Sanders (a true American hero)!!!!!

[onehandle]

23. He's a socialist when it suits him.

When he doesn't get his way, he turns to fascism.

[EFerrari]

26. Nope. Unlike ours, his government does not collude with multinationals.

[Braulio]

28. Chavez doesn't collude with multinationals?

Seems to me he does. Lots of contracts are being issued without bids to "friendly companies from friendly nations". For example a huge oil field known as Junin 6 has been awarded to a Russian consortium without having the appropriate tender and receiving sealed bids, as would be customary in a better run system. The Russian companies making up the consortium include several multinationals.

[EFerrari]

32. You gotta link? TIA.

[Braulio]

36. The no-bid deal between Russian multinationals and PDVSA

Here's a brief article,

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32431058

but if you search using Google and the key words "Junin 6 Russian Consortium" you can find a lot of reading material. Here's a synopsis:

Venezuela has an oil basin or field known as the Faja del Orinoco. The oil is very low quality, almost like asphalt, but it can be produced and processed into synthetic oil. The government has four joint ventures in the area, plus some other areas PDVSA operates by itself. The government divided the undeveloped areas into large parcels, each containing more of this low quality oil than the largest US field (Prudhoe Bay in Alaska). The parcels have been asigned to companies without bids, to help PDVSA understand how much oil there really is in each parcel. These studies don't mean much, and don't give rights to the companies carrying out the studies to produce the oil. Most of the studies are complete, and many companies walked away, or went "sleeper status" because taxes are too high and PDVSA is too erratic.

However, on top of these study agreements, the government signed agreements to hand over parcels to some selected players. The key parcel is Junin 6, which has a lot of oil. It was assigned to the Russian consortium, which includes several Russian multinationals (privately owned) plus two Russian government owned companies (Rosneft and Gazprom), and a joint Russian-British multinational (the British shares are owned by British Petroleum).

The government has also given away deals to other players, such as the Chinese (that would be a government owned corporation), and the Belarussians (not known for their oil production skills, but they do have a quality communist dictator, Lukashenko). They made a preliminary deal with Petrobras (government and privately owned), but Petrobras walked from the deal because they discovered huge oil reserves offshore Brazil, and of course they'd rather develop their own oil.

The Venezuelan government has also made government to government deals with Brazil in particular, which Lula's government then flips to privately owned Brazilian companies such as Odebretch. These deals have been incredibly profitable for these Brazilian multinationals, and are the reason why the Brazilian upper classes are so happy with Lula's foreign policy, he works hard for their cause, and they are growing fast. The Venezuelans, on the other hand, seem to be shooting themselves in the foot. Besides Brazil, they seem to do a lot of deals with the Chinese, which import Chinese labour to do a lot of the work Venezuelans could do.

The government seems to be focused on killing off private industry and commerce in Venezuela, so they can install a socialist-communist system. This of course means there's significant upper and middle class flight, and money is flowing out as they abandon Venezuela and move to the US, Colombia, and more friendly venues. Long term, coupling the communist line with the absurd exchange rate, the lousy planning, corruption and very high crime rate, Venezuela is becoming one of the lowest rated places to do business.

Given the poor performance anticipated for the growing state sector (which is being made into a copy of the Cuban or Soviet systems), Venezuelan bonds are considered a very high risk vehicle, which means the money the government is borrowing to cover its deficit are paying very high interest rates. I believe they should be considered junk bonds, as the default risk is very high.

The broad picture is one of mismanagement, corruption, and a "revolution" moving the country towards a form of national socialism with a militarist flavour. The President, Chavez, spends time talking up war, and making alliances with some of the most repressive regimes around, such as Iran, Zimbabwe, Lybia, Cuba, and their ilk.

What is really hard to understand is why so many "progressives" in the US support what we see emerging in Venezuela today. It's not as bad as the Soviet Union, yet, but it does seem to be headed that way. And the only force which will be able to stop it, really, will be the decent Venezuelans who work within the government - because the opposition does look poorly organized, is led by too many has been political hacks, and is too tied to the old regimes which also raped and pillaged the country. It's typical Latin American politics, with the people stuck between the frying pan and the fire.

[Braulio]

27. Chavez does sound communist

Chavez and his followers sound more like communists by the day. He does admire Fidel Castro, and recently seemed to speak well of Idi Amin. Also pals around with Lukashenko and Mugabe. However, he does have a militarist streak, and his government is well known for its corruption and favoring certain noveau rich known as "boligarchs", who are enriching themselves via contacts with government officials. I guess you could say it's complicated.

[Kalun D]

3. As The Corp WHORE Media

ramps up it's attack on Chavez, "justification" so the MIMC can go in there and liberate (steal) the oil back from the working people of Venezuela

If Obama attacks Venezuela he goes down in history as just another corrupt corporate warmonger.

[Chulanowa]

5. Critics are blaming Chavez

Because Hugo motherfucking Chavez controls the weather?

[dipsydoodle]

8. Exactly.

:hi:

[Chulanowa]

10. Ah hell...

Here here I thought it was Pudge the Fish all along...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNj1XTnXc_M

[dipsydoodle]

11. lol

:)

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Never miss a trick, do they?

[totodeinhere]

24. Come on now. That's politics for you. The guy in charge always gets blamed...

whether it's his fault or not. It just comes with the territory. That certainly is not unique to Venezuela, and it's a tactic used by both the left and the right.

[JonQ]

34. Seems to me

that since they have a fairly centrally planned economy they could have forseen that the weather was unpredictable and planned for it.

Now, is there some realistic way they could have of generating power other than water? Something maybe that they have in abundance and could be stored in tanks or drums and used in increasing amounts to account for loss of hydro power?

Hmm. Nothing comes to mind. Venezuela has no other energy reserves. Nevermind.

[Chulanowa]

35. Ah yes, of course

Why didn't I think to consult a red-baiting piece of shit before? Thank you JonQ!

[JonQ]

38. Heh

nothing makes people as mad as when you point out flaws in saint hugo.

Yeah, there is no way he could have predicted that rain is not constant, and no alternative energy source available.

I guess as long as you say the occasional fuck you to uncle sam you will always have a rabid group of supporters on here (a small minority though) that will excuse anything you do.

[polly7]

44. It's got nothing to do with a 'fuck you to Uncle Sam'

What's this victim thing when it comes to any leader operating in ways the U.S. or other capitalistic based countries don't? Chavez has his faults, trying to do the best he can for his PEOPLE isn't one of them. I get sick of being called an apologist. Maybe you're projecting. Try learning exactly how far he's actually brought his people from despair, poverty and illiteracy with the resources they rightfully own and have given him trust to manage. Big fucking whoo ....... a nation that controls its own destiny, without the 'help' of anyone. No wonder that's hated ..... it's a BIG NO NO. Now ..... if they were a nation with no resources, he wouldn't even be on the radar. If he's such a piece of scum and such a pox on 'Uncle Sam', boycott his cheap heating oil, boycott all his oil. Start a movement.

Edited for the spelling police.

[JonQ]

45. Nah pretty much that's it

tell the US where to stick it (particularly under bush) and so called liberals will flock to your banner and defend very un-progressive behavior.

Take control of the media, arrest political opponents, rewrite the laws so you can stay in power, no problem so long as you throw out the occasional "america is the great satan" speeches.

[polly7]

47. Nah ........ that's not it at all.

Control your own country, use your resources to the betterment of your own people, develop social programs the 'haves' scoff at and you're pretty much a scumsucking enemy of the empire.

[JonQ]

48. I see you've already had the koolaid

and drank hearty.

Well no matter, you're in good company.

[polly7]

50. Your kool-aid thing got old years ago.

Does it hurt knowing not everyone believes the propaganda surrounding Chavez' every move? Big, bad old boogeyman Chavez. Would you know his name if his country didn't have vast resources of the world's oil???

[JonQ]

55. Oh yes

do avoid the "propaganda" put out by all other media outlets.

Only believe the truth, coming from those media outlets owned by Mr. Chavez.

Everyone lies, but saint hugo.

[Braulio]

56. Reality check

Chavez does have a lot of faults. Doing his best isn't good enough if he's driving them backwards, which seems to be the case. So maybe it's time for a little change, and he can let somebody else try being president? He has been at it for 10 years, and his management style and performance aren't up to par. Even worse, he surrounds himself with some of the dumbest people on earth, when it comes to economic management, they're bums.

[Braulio]

37. Because the government neglected to prepare for drought

Drought periods are known to return on a regular basis, government agencies in Venezuela KNEW this problem would take place, and plans were made a long time ago to build power plants and improve the distribution system (Chavez has been in power for 10 years, and these plans were made both before and after he took over). The problem arises because the Chavez government failed to make sure the infrastructure was built or improved AS PLANNED BY HIS OWN GOVERNMENT. The people know this is the case, and they're upset - a lot of the money was wasted, given away to other countries, used to subsidize the Cuban economy, buying weapons from Russia, and otherwise squandered. Now they're in trouble, and the power cuts are helping bring down an economy already weakened by low oil prices, price controls, and exchange rate controls.

[Igel]

40. Post 37 nailed most of it.

But there's more.

Pakistan has rolling power cuts for two reasons. The first is as in Venezuela--not as much rain as usual, they had to cut back on hydroelectric production; this got mixed up in making sure there was enough water for irrigation (farmers lost).

The second is that the economy grew and living standards increased, and so the country needed more electricity. Keeping the levels they had in good times 10 years ago would have led to rolling blackouts and brownouts now. Musharraf didn't focus on power station building. Nor did he focus on conservation.

So, no Chavez doesn't control the weather. He didn't plan for likely weather patterns, and he also did not plan for increased consumption. Instead he has his one-size-fits-all response: Whatever the problem, it's the enemies of his supporters out to undermine him and, vicariously, to hurt his supporters (or the other way around, good vozhdi like Chavez manage to viscerally connect with enough supporters that the political is intensely personal, so to insult your leader is like insulting your mother).

[Ken Burch]

7. The same thing would be happening if Venezuela had a "free market" system

Look at what Enron did in California(a program of deliberate random power cuts that should probably be regarded as a destabilization campaign against a sitting Democratic governor, an effort that succeeded as we all know).

[Braulio]

29. Not the same as California

Sorry bud, but it's not the same thing as California. Venezuela is having a power shortage because the government has planned very poorly, and executed even worse. The drought was taken into account when they laid out plans several years ago, to build new power plants. They failed to build the plants.

[JVS]

49. How is that different from California?

Had they not planned poorly and executed even worse?

[JDPriestly]

9. And here in Los Angeles, we are permitted to water our lawns

only twice a week and then only for a specific number of minutes.

You can blame economic failures on the economic policies of the government.

But you really can't blame the weather on the policies of the government.

By the way, we also have a terrible water shortage in the Central Valley of California. That's the part of California where a lot of America's food is usually grown.

Droughts affect everyone. Government land-use policy can cause or worsen them. But basically, no government can increase or decrease rainfall.

I'm not a Chavez fan, but this is not his fault.

[Mudoria]

12. Hugo probably needs to stick to speeches

and let someone else with a little brainpower run the country.

[EFerrari]

17. A rainmaker?

lol

[UTUSN]

15. K&R #7 for, La-la-la-la-LAH !1 n/t

[Dave From Canada]

16. "In normal conditions the dam generates enough power to meet the needs of most of Venezuela"

So most, but not all, even in normal conditions. Perhaps they should look into additional power sources.

[DBoon]

19. like nuclear?

Could you imagine the reaction if Chavez started a civilian nuclear power program?

[Psephos]

46. You're late to the party...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aElQ3UEU9eYM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7751562.stm

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Uh, maybe they have other power sources for the rest of the country?

:shrug:

[RedCloud]

18. But still they offered to help us during Katrina and POS Bush refused them and other países.

Why in living fuck don't we hear about that? Who gave Bush the right to allow only his conglomerate friends to rape our treasury after Katrina when other countries offered to do it for free?

But yes let's focus on some natural event and blame Chávez. Say what has Obama/Bush done about the lowering of the water tables across the heartland of America? Or about the moon drifting away at two inches per year?

[Braulio]

30. It's mostly posturing

It's mostly posturing when Chavez "offers aid" to other nations. he does it precisely so people like you can say he did offer it. Meanwhile the Venezuelan economy is turning into a real mess, and poor Venezuelans are having a very hard time getting proper medical attention.

[DumpDavisHogg]

20. UPI is owned by Sun Myung Moon

I don't trust a word it says.

[Flaneur]

21. Sounds like Venezuela needs to beef up its electric infrastructure.

No matter who is in power there.

[Fearless]

22. Most logical response of the lot. +1

[Braulio]

31. Indeed

Venezuela does need to beef up its power infrastructure. The plans they have laid out include construction of new power plants, but the country also needs a better distribution system, because the hydropower plants which generate the bulk of the electricity are far from population centers. Unfortunately for Venezuelans, the government nationalized many private electricity generating companies, failed to build new plants and has neglected to maintain and expand the distribution network.

Even worse, emergency measures they are taking now are STILL neglecting the power distribution network, and include construction of large power plants AWAY from population centers, so the new plants will have to send their electricity through the same bottlenecked system.

Venezuela today seems to be run by political hacks who tend to be communists and/or corrupt opportunists, and the system is breaking down in several areas, of which power is just one.

[EFerrari]

39. The administration created a new ministry in October to address

increased demand by increasing production and trying to lower demand through ed. It looks like demand almost doubled in the boom years and the system couldn't keep up with it.

[Igel]

42. So this is what you're saying.

We're pretty confident that this problem was predictable, in broad outlines, a and moew decade ago. So that plans were made. The drought's been going on for many months now, and the problems really started in what--September and October?

We're also pretty confident that everybody knew that consumption would increase--it takes a lot for it to actually decrease. And this would have been obvious to electric company planners a long time ago. You don't tend to build this kind of infrastructure overnight, esp. not if you're a private company and need permits and such.

And we're also pretty confident that Chavez had increased consumption in mind from the get-go. I'm guessing most consumption increases occur not when the middle class gets a new gadget but when working-class and lower-class folk can start buying more gear. So we can say that this was to be assumed a decade ago.

So I'm glad to see that Chavez placed the proper priority on electrical infrastructure and capacity development. It shows that he's a great leader, able to prioritize for the well-being of his citizenry, looking far ahead of their short-term needs in order to avert predictable problems.

Well, at least he decided to have always had taken the long-view months after the drought started. And in response to rolling blackouts. Come to think of it, he took action when it became a political problem, something that he could blame on others and so deny responsibility for creating, while charging to the rescue and take all responsibility for fixing. Esp. when the rains return.

[EFerrari]

43. Not really, I don't know enough about this situation

to say anything of the sort but posted the information that I do have. How's that?

[Braulio]

51. "Chavez" didn't place priority on power generation infrastructure

I guess you read what you want to read from a message? The planners in the Energy ministry were aware demand would grow, droughts happen, and power plant equipment breaks down. In Venezuela, there WERE private electricity generators, but they could not build powerplants without having a previous agreement and permits from the Ministry. What happened was a two-punch blow dealt by the government (and in Venezuela, the government means Chavez): they nationalized the electric power generation plants, and they failed to invest and maintain to make sure the system capacity would match demand.

Come to think of it, the problem was created by the current administration, which has been in power for 10 years, and which is well known for its overall lack of capable individuals in high places.

[Braulio]

54. Typical misguided response, a new Ministry

The proliferation of ministries is one sign of mismanagement. The problem is at the top, creating a new ministry isn't going to solve the problem. I've read portions of their plan responding to the current crisis and it's typical: they're organizing the response the wrong way, they are building many of the new power plants in the wrong spots, and in many cases are using drivers which consume diesel. It's sheer mad hatter madness.

[JonQ]

33. Brainwashed Venezuelans

listening to the corporate fascist pro-american media.

All is well, there is nothing to complain about. Hugo is working tirelessly on your behalf. If anything you should spend every waking moment thanking god/hugo that he has deemed you worthy of his leadership!

[Braulio]

52. Maybe they should build him a cathedral?

LOL.

[silverweb]

41. Time for innovative solutions, Hugo.

You can lead the world if you do these things simultaneously and on a big scale:

(1) Water-less/composting toilets/urinals for all. Flushing is one of the biggest water wasters there is, and you can't afford it.

(2) Combination solar electricity/desalination plants. Do it while you still have oil to export, and you still have your power and influence.

Good luck!

[Braulio]

53. You should go to Caracas and give them advice

Your advice is incredibly impractical, but I'm sure that, given the lack of ability displayed by the Chavez administration to run their economy, you could go to Caracas, study the facts, and improve their performance.

Just so you know, one of the greatest problems in a large city such as Caracas is garbage displacement. This means efforts have to be made to REDUCE the amount of solid waste which has to be moved by truck. Your proposal for water less toilets is enormously counterproductive.

Venezuela has the largest natural gas reserves in South America (used to be in the Western Hemisphere, but new technologies have increased US reserves recently, therefore I doubt Venezuela's are larger than the gringos'). This means they can generate cheap electric power using gas fired power plants, which are easy to build by a capable organization. Venezuela also has untapped hydropower potential.

Venezuela also has enormous water resources, they just happen to be located away from the main cities - the current water shortage is a temporary issued associated with drought which impacted the water catchment lakes built to store water. A well-run administration can overcome the problem by building additional water catchment sites. However, long term they would do better encouraging growth in middle sized cities away from Caracas, the capital. This is a tall order given the lack of private investment in Venezuela today.