By Alejandra Garcia on October 17, 2024
Severe blackouts hit Ecuador, photo: Bloomberg
The massive power cuts in Ecuador continue to cause havoc and threaten to become more serious each time. The country subsists between several parallel crises, but the electricity breakdown is the one that concentrates the discomfort of the citizens and, also, of the government of President Daniel Noboa, a U.S born right-wing neo liberal corporate businessman who is giving away the country’s resources while the people sit in the dark.
Scheduled power outages in Ecuador began September 23. Since then, some sectors of the country’s cities have been without electricity from six to ten hours a day in industrial areas, due to a severe drought in Ecuador’s main hydroelectric power plants. More than 70% of Ecuador’s electricity generation matrix depends on hydroelectric power plants, which have been affected by the worst drought in the last 60 years in the country.
In the capital Quito, the drinking water service is at risk and the city has declared an emergency. On October 3, 2024, Quito Water Company (Epmpas) declared an emergency after recognizing that blackouts of up to 10 hours a day have exceeded its capacity to guarantee the continuity and availability of the drinking water service.
In this context, no official can hold on to the office of the Ministry of Energy. It is an institution with only 432 employees and a budget of USD 69 million. In just 11 months of management, the entity has had four ministers: two incumbent ministers and two ministers in charge. They have had to deal not only with the intense drought and the problematic electricity sector, but also with political pressures within the Executive.
“Inexperience in crisis management and lack of transparency in communication on behalf of the Government makes citizens hold Daniel Noboa, responsible for the blackouts and all the erratic decisions his government has taken,” the newspaper La Hora reported.
“The regime’s actions to mitigate the energy and water crises seem to have arrived late. In September, Government Minister Arturo Felix Wong said that there would be no blackouts. Then, the former Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Goncalves, announced nighttime blackouts. This week, however, power outages are currently up to 14 hours and occur without respecting schedules,” the newspaper continued.
At the beginning of October, Goncalves resigned from the Ministry of Energy. In his place, Noboa appointed Inés Manzano, Minister of Environment, who made her debut applying neoliberal measures that affect the population in the midst of the crisis. “This week is critical”, so she stated and announced the end of the electricity subsidy to the country’s mining companies and ruled out renting a floating power plant despite the urgency of solutions.
In this context, President Daniel Noboa’s agenda has become less and less public while more internally chaotic. The events and tours to make his administration known to the citizens or to deliver credits and works began to diminish due to the new cycle of prolonged blackouts.
“This is a government that has become addicted to the digital conversation – La Hora warned – and currently has a discourse that has generated a broad negative sentiment in social networks, where President Noboa is identified as ‘the one responsible for the crisis’.”
It should be mentioned that Daniel Naboa has only been in politics since 2021 before being gifted the presidency by his father, banana baron Álvaro Noboa who is the richest person in Ecuador with assets over$1 billion, and the rest of the US supported parasitic oligarchy.
A survey conducted by the agency Content Manager Ecuador revealed that, from 18:00 on September 22 and 18:00 on September 23, 2024, local time, more than 27 thousand publications were registered voicing a rejection of the blackouts, including allusions to the president as the first responsible for the crisis.
The lack of solutions for entrepreneurs and the lack of information for local governments are another example of the lack of maneuverability shown by the ministers in charge of overcoming the crisis. Meanwhile, the people are plunged into despair without immediate and lasting solutions, and without hope that the government will empathize with the reality of Ecuadorians.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English