teleSUR correspondent in Caracas, Gladys Quesada, reports on the consistent efforts of the Venezuelan authorities to restore the electric service in the entirety of the country, after last night’s attack on the National Electric Service. teleSUR
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00:00From Caracas, our correspondent and colleague Gladys Quezada update us on how the Venezuelan
00:06people are facing Friday's attack on the National Power Grid.
00:10Hello, Gladys, tell us about it and give us an update, please.
00:14Yeah, Ana, hello.
00:16Thanks for this time.
00:17Thanks for the contact.
00:18And as I always say, thank for the opportunity to communicate and to inform our audience
00:23regarding what is going on in Venezuela.
00:26I have to stress and summarize some information from morning time, and I recall these dates
00:33and this time.
00:34At 4.50 a.m. on early morning, there was announced an electricity cut, a subrush against the
00:42power national grid here in Venezuela, which resulted in this lack of electricity, this
00:48lack of power here in Caracas, the capital of the country, as well as in other states.
00:55From day on, you know, people have been going out to work because they have to still moving
01:01on with their lives.
01:03So the commerces, the finances and the banks and other centers have been operating with
01:08only cash transactions.
01:11I was reporting this before, and I have to stress this now because the digital systems
01:17to access to this account, to maybe the cash or maybe to the flow of money in digital ways,
01:24digital means, those systems are down.
01:27So people cannot operate using their accounts.
01:30So they have to use only cash transactions.
01:32Moreover, the electrical power, the grid, the power grid, the electrical power has been
01:39coming back in some areas of the city and has been coming in and out because it's still
01:47unstable.
01:48But I have to say that the data and Internet services are recovered, are coming back because
01:54we were experiencing a lack of these services just two hours ago.
01:59And now the service is restored partially, but is functioning at some level.
02:04Also, I have to say that the government issued a plan, and I was informing that, but I have
02:09to stress it, that the government was issuing a plan to provide services of transportation
02:16with 250 buses of the Metro Bus Line, which is the line of buses that substitutes the
02:22Metro or the subway here in Caracas when this kind of accidents or any urgency happens.
02:29In this case, the government was saying that the subway lines are unable and they cannot
02:34operate because of the power cut.
02:38But the decision was to use these 250 buses.
02:42I have to explain something because maybe for someone who is from outside Venezuela
02:48or doesn't have the information on Venezuela, they don't know this.
02:51OK, so here in Caracas, there are two main lines, one that goes north to south and other
02:57that goes east to west.
02:59In that case, those two main lines, they move a big part or a large part of the seven million
03:06people that live in Caracas.
03:08The residents of Caracas that have to go out to work or maybe to do their daily activities.
03:14So in this case, those 250 buses are trying to supply this service to those seven million
03:22people who are users of the subway lines.
03:25And also, as I wanted to explain, the traffic is going on normally.
03:29The National Armed Guard forces, they are serving as facilitators for the traffic.
03:35They are standing in the corners, they are standing in the streets, allowing some cars
03:40to go by and others they have to stop and allowing the pedestrians to go and walk and
03:45cross the streets and do their activities.
03:48Moreover, the government also has announced the support for 79 health care facilities
03:53because this power grid attack, this sabotage against the electric system is also going
04:00to affect, is trying to affect, to impact the livelihood and the well-being of the people
04:05and also trying to impact these installations, these facilities of health care.
04:10But now the government has issued not only the resources, it has allocated power plants,
04:15it has allocated power backups so they can guarantee the service and for the pregnant
04:22women, for the children, for the sick one, the elderly and moreover, the emergency units
04:26that cannot stop the service.
04:29So moreover, that was the information during the day.
04:33But now there are other declarations.
04:35The Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, has been saying that he is starting
04:40La Centella operation, Centella, which is like spark, which is like a light, a bolt
04:46light operation because it is intended to find the responsible and those accountable
04:52for this attack and bring them on to justice.
04:55Also the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello
05:01Rondón, he was also saying that it is paramount and necessary to stay calm.
05:06He called the population to stay in tranquility, to move on with their daily lives despite
05:11these difficulties and these circumstances.
05:14And the president of the nation, Nicolás Maduro Moros, he was also saying that people
05:18have to have still nerve.
05:20Still nerve is an expression to say calm over everything, you know, calm to overcome the
05:26difficulties.
05:28Also I want to say, Ana, that Jorge Arreaza, the first secretary of ALBA-TCP, one of the
05:34movements that joins and comes together and gathers many Latin American countries, one
05:39of the many blocks of integration, is calling for respect for Venezuela and is condemning
05:44this attack, this sabotage against the power grid here in Venezuela and in Caracas.
05:51Also I want to stress something.
05:53This is happening just one month after the electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro Moros,
05:58one month after the elections, the presidential elections here in Venezuela, and this sabotage
06:04is also falling in line with one that happened on Tuesday night and also affected northern
06:10parts of the city of Caracas.
06:13So this is not new for Venezuelan people, this is not a new event for them.
06:18So they have the strategies, they have the reliance on themselves, in the government,
06:24and I have to say, this kind of attacks are only echoing, they are only, you know, doing
06:29a resonance with what happened in Venezuela in 2019, when also for five days Venezuelans
06:36were under this kind of power cuts and they experienced also the lack of transportation
06:42and the lack of other resources, but moreover they overcame that attack and they are also
06:48being resilient to this one and they are saying that they are going to move on from this,
06:54pass from this, because this is just one more of the many attacks they are receiving in
06:59these days in the aftermath of the July 28th elections and let's recall that on July 29th
07:05and 30th there was terrorist attacks on the subway lines, on the transportation means
07:11and also 27 Venezuelans lost their lives.
07:14So moreover Ana, this information, international governments, organizations are supporting
07:21Venezuela, are condemning this sabotage, this attack on the power national grid and the
07:27Venezuelan people is just, they are just trying to overcome this and do their normal lives
07:33because that's the premise here in Venezuela, to be in peace, to be resilient and to find
07:39resources and alternatives for themselves and by themselves to face this kind of attacks.
07:45Back to you Ana.
07:46Thank you Gladys very much for all your remarks and information during this power grid that
07:52happened in the country.