Vice president Delcy Rodriguez announced today that the Maduro government is restructuring CORPOELEC, the state-owned electrical company, in order to “modernize” the troubled company.
Rodriguez said that the restructuring of CORPOELEC was part of larger process to overhaul the country’s electrical grid, a task that once completed will turn Venezuela into a “powerful” country, Rodriguez claimed. The vice president also explained that this effort would involve “six working group commissions”, the purpose of which would be to “reinforce the new [electrical system]… against multi-form attacks”.
Venezuela has been paralyzed over the last month by a series of days-long, nationwide blackouts that have affected virtually every corner of the country at some point. The first of the blackouts occurred on March 7, and was followed by four others interspersed throughout the month.
The Maduro regime has blamed the attacks on a broad coalition of foreign and domestic enemies, and claims that they were carried out in a number of ways. At different times, regime officials have blamed “cybernetic” and “electromagnetic” weapons for the outages, as well as more conventional sniper attacks.
The government has not provided evidence for any of its claims.
Experts have offered an alternative set of explanation for the blackouts, in general blaming equipment failures caused by years of neglect and disrepair as well as a brain drain at the state utility company.
Guaido Gives April 6 Protest Details
Interim president Juan Guaido gave some details today about a nationwide protest that is scheduled to take place this April 6.
According to Guaido, the opposition will ask Venezuelans to rally at 67 different points around the country.
On his expectation for the protest, Guaido said:
What I can tell you is that it’s going to be massive, and we need every one of you to mobilize in person [to force] a definitive end to the usurpation [of the presidency by Maduro].
China Denies PLA Presence in Venezuela
Geng Shuang, the deputy director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denied rumours today that People’s Liberation Army soldiers are in Venezuela, calling the stories “completely false”.
All throughout this past week, Twitter users have been sharing unverified images allegedly showing Chinese soldiers in Venezuela. The reports accompanying the images are contradictory, with some claiming that the soldiers have been arriving in waves on boats, while others claiming that they arrived in late March on an airplane.
While it is true that a Suparna Airlines flight (registration number Y87413) arrived in Venezuela from Spain on March 29, there is no evidence that the aircraft brought Chinese soldiers to the country.
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