{"id":33645,"date":"2019-03-15T09:48:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T09:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=33645"},"modified":"2019-03-15T09:48:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T09:48:55","slug":"bishops-speak-out-over-electricity-blackout-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/03\/15\/bishops-speak-out-over-electricity-blackout-in-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"BISHOPS SPEAK OUT OVER ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN VENEZUELA"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>\u00a0\u201cIn this time of legal darkness, there has been added a literal darkness\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The political and economic crisis that is ravaging Venezuela has become even worse in recent days as a result of the electricity blackout that has affected the whole country, 23 different states, since March 7 this year. According to information provided by Caritas to the international Catholic pastoral charity and pontifical foundation <strong><em>Aid to the Church in Need (ACN International)<\/em><\/strong>, the electricity crisis has affected almost every other area of the supply chain, including water, gasoline, transport, communications and the hospitals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0\u201cSources tell us that the problem originated as a result of a breakdown in the central hydroelectric generating station which provides energy for 80% of the country\u201d, the Caritas report explains. Nonetheless, the authorities of the government-controlled National Executive allege that the emergency was caused by \u201celectronic warfare\u201d as a result of a \u201cterrorist cyber-attack\u201d from abroad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In different statements, gathered by ACN, most of the Venezuelan bishops have now spoken out in response to this grave crisis, which has left some communities without electricity for over 130 hours now, provoking chaos and consternation among the population, social tensions and looting, as well as shutting down schools and businesses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Archbishop Ulises Guti\u00e9rrez of Ciudad Bol\u00edvar stated that \u201cthe country has been left in the dark, with blackouts throughout the country for over five days now. They have affected the hospitals and clinics, the public services, communications, banking activities, paralysing the country as never before in its history. A significant number of our fellow citizens have died through not getting the medical attention they needed, as a result of the lack of electric power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Caritas report indicates that according to information from the organisation <em>M\u00e9dicos Unidos<\/em>, some 20 individuals have died throughout the country, as a result of the electricity outage in the hospitals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bishop Mario Moronta of San Crist\u00f3bal stated that the authorities, \u201cfar from listening to the just complaints of the people, continue to harden the hearts of those who hold in their hands the solution to the difficulties, and above all to the central problem for which these same people are clamouring \u2013 namely a change of political direction and not the imposition of an unacceptable system that is not at the service of the men and women of Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For his part Bishop Ernesto Romero of the apostolic vicariate of Tucupita, declared that \u201cthe paralysis of the electricity supply throughout almost the whole of the country is nothing more than a demonstration of the indifference, laziness, lack of maintenance and incompetence of the national government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The emergency has led people to resort to desperate and unsafe measures, such as collecting water from unclean sources, eating partly rotten food and undergo risky mobilization.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bishop Polito Rodr\u00edguez of the diocese of San Carlos announced that \u201cVenezuela is today confronting the worst humanitarian crisis in its history as a republic; human rights are being violated with impunity. In essence, freedom and equality have been disregarded by those who are governing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bishop Jos\u00e9 Manuel Romero Barrios of El Tigre has also spoken out, saying that the life of the Venezuelan people \u201chas been subjected to a growing structural violence which, while not actually physically attacking the humanity of its people, is nonetheless expressed in the failure of those responsible for the management of society to attend to the most basic needs of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking in similar terms, Archbishop Jes\u00fas Gonz\u00e1lez de Z\u00e1rate of Cuman\u00e1 called on people to raise their voices \u201cto denounce the lies, the injustice, the use of violence, the fanatical desire to divide and control us, the repression and persecution of legitimate protest and all those things within our society that are contrary to the plan of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bishop \u00c1ngel Caraballo, the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Cabimas, added that \u201cin this time of legal darkness, of darkness in relation to social security, darkness in relation to food, darkness in regard to civic peace, there has been added a literal darkness, an additional element which simply adds to the humiliation suffered by the Venezuelan people, through the fault of the regime, which has forgotten about people in order to sustain a dominant political system that has brought only tragedy, death, unrest and misery where ever it has been implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bishop Oswaldo Azuaje of the diocese of Trujillo deplored the current situation and called on his people to continue \u201clooking for the Lord in every brother who needs us. The days of the blackout were an opportunity to witness great examples of solidarity\u2026 in the sharing of food and drinking water, gasoline for the vehicles and many other examples of people sharing their sufferings and joys together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The message of the bishops has brought words of relief and hope to the Venezuelan people in the midst of the dark turbulence they are currently living through. Caritas announced that it will continue to actively pursue its service of \u201c<em>Ollas Comunitarias<\/em>\u201d (\u201ccommunity cooking pots\u201d, i.e. shared meals service) in the various different dioceses, and also its programme of \u201cmedication banks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u201cIn this time of legal darkness, there has been added a literal darkness\u201d The political and economic crisis that is ravaging Venezuela has become even worse in recent days as a result of the electricity blackout that has affected the whole country, 23 different states, since March 7 this year. According to information provided by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BISHOPS SPEAK OUT OVER ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN VENEZUELA - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2019\/03\/15\/bishops-speak-out-over-electricity-blackout-in-venezuela\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BISHOPS SPEAK OUT OVER ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN VENEZUELA - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0\u201cIn this time of legal darkness, there has been added a literal darkness\u201d The political and economic crisis that is ravaging Venezuela has become even worse in recent days as a result of the electricity blackout that has affected the whole country, 23 different states, since March 7 this year. 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