Saturday, March 9, 2019
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
A9
Venezuela buckles under massive power, communications outage
By SCOTT SMITH,
FABIOLA SANCHEZ and
CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s
worst power and communications outage
on Friday deepened a sense of isolation and
decay, endangering hospital patients, forcing
schools and businesses to close and cutting
people off from their families, friends and
the outside world.
While electricity returned to some parts
of Caracas nearly 24 hours after lights,
phones and the internet stopped working,
several other populous cities remained in the
dark as evening approached.
“I’m desperate,” said Maria Isabel Garcia,
a 39-year-old office worker who hadn’t been
able to buy food for her three young children
because she wasn’t able to take money out of
the bank on Thursday.
The blackout marked another harsh blow
to a country paralyzed by turmoil as the
power struggle between Venezuelan Presi-
dent Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader
Juan Guaido stretches into its second month
and economic hardship grows.
Venezuelans have grown begrudgingly
accustomed to power cuts, but nothing like
the one that hit during rush hour on Thurs-
day evening, sending thousands of people
on long nighttime treks in the dark to their
homes. It reached virtually every part of the
oil-rich country of 31 million, which was
once Latin America’s wealthiest but is now
beset by shortages and hyperinflation pro-
jected by the International Monetary Fund
to reach a staggering 10 million percent this
AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo
Locals scramble to board a bus after a power outage in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday.
year, compelling about one-tenth of its pop-
ulation to flee in recent years.
Venezuelans struggling to put food on
the table worried that the few items in their
fridges would spoil. One hospital advocate
reported there were at least two confirmed
deaths due to the outage: a baby in a neonatal
unit and a patient at the children’s hospital.
Venezuelans with chronic conditions like
diabetes searched for ice to preserve their
limited supplies of medicines.
The blackout promptly became a point
of dispute between Maduro, who blamed
sabotage engineered by the “imperialist
United States,” and U.S.-backed opposition
leader Juan Guaido, who said state corrup-
tion and mismanagement that have left the
electrical grid in shambles were the cause.
Guaido, the leader of Venezuela’s National
Assembly, returned from a Latin American
tour to Venezuela on Monday in order to
escalate his campaign to topple Maduro and
hold elections and called for new protests on
Saturday.
Many of the more than 3.4 million Ven-
ezuelans who have fled thus far left with
valuable skills— including energy exper-
tise — and the government’s allegations of
a saboteurs’ plot was met with skepticism by
many in Caracas.
“They always say the same thing,” said
Carlos Ramos, an economist who was wait-
ing to see a doctor outside the darkened
lobby of a Caracas hospital.
Elsewhere in the city, Dr. Luz Ardila
Suarez, a gynecologist, said many staffers at
the hospital where she works were still on the
job Friday morning because they couldn’t get
home the previous night. Like other hospi-
tals, she said the facility was relying on gen-
erators but only had enough fuel for another
day or two and that she was especially wor-
ried about patients in intensive care.
“There are patients who are connected
to machines,” Suarez said. “And of course,
there’s no water.”
Dr. Julio Castro, one of the leaders of
the nonprofit Doctors for Health, reported
on Twitter that about half of 23 hospi-
tals surveyed were grappling with failing
generators.
Another health advocacy group, CODEV-
IDA, reported that thousands of dialysis
patients were going without treatment as a
result of the outage. Advocates were partic-
ularly concerned about patients who rely on
respirators and the lack of air conditioning
in several hospitals, which is needed to keep
facilities cool in order to prevent the spread
of bacteria.
By early Friday afternoon, residents and
pro-government state broadcaster VTV
reported that power was returning to parts
of Caracas. Traffic lights in several neigh-
borhoods were back on, while at one office
building the electricity flickered to life and
then turned off.
Chelsea Manning jailed for
refusing to testify on WikiLeaks
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Army
intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who
served years in prison for leaking one of the
largest troves of classified documents in U.S.
history, was sent to jail on Friday for refus-
ing to testify before a grand jury investigat-
ing WikiLeaks.
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered
Manning to jail for civil contempt of court
after a brief hearing in federal court in Alex-
andria in which Manning confirmed she has
no intention of testifying. She told the judge
she “will accept whatever you bring upon
me.”
Manning has said she objects to the secrecy
of the grand jury process and already revealed
everything she knows at her court-martial.
She said prosecutors have granted her immu-
nity for her testimony, which eliminates her
ability to invoke her Fifth Amendment right
against self-incrimination.
“I will not participate in a secret process
that I morally object to, particularly one that
has been used to entrap and persecute activ-
ists for protected political speech,” she said in
a statement released after she was taken into
custody.
The judge said she will remain jailed until
she testifies or until the grand jury concludes
its work.
Manning’s lawyers had asked that she be
sent to home confinement instead of the jail
because of complications she faces in receiv-
ing gender-affirming medical care.
The judge said U.S. marshals can handle
her medical care. Prosecutor Tracy McCor-
mick said the jail and the marshals have
assured the government that her medical
needs can be met.
Amy Bertsch, spokeswoman for the Alex-
andria jail, confirmed on Friday that Man-
ning had been booked.
“Specific details about Ms. Manning’s
confinement will not be made public due to
security and privacy concerns,” Alexandria
Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said in a statement.
“We will work closely with the U.S. Marshals
to ensure her proper care while she remains
at our facility.”
Manning acknowledged going into Fri-
day’s hearing that she might well be incarcer-
ated at its conclusion. Outside the courthouse,
about 10 protesters rallied in her support.
“Obviously, prison is a terrible place,”
Manning said. “I don’t see the purpose to
incarcerate people.”
Manning served seven years of a 35-year
military sentence for leaking a trove of mili-
tary and diplomatic documents to the anti-se-
crecy website before then-President Barack
Obama commuted her sentence.
The WikiLeaks investigation has been
ongoing for a long time. Last year, prosecu-
tors in Alexandria inadvertently disclosed
that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is
facing unspecified, sealed criminal charges
in the district.
WikiLeaks also has emerged as an import-
ant part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s
investigation into possible Russian meddling
into the 2016 presidential election, as inves-
tigators focus on whether President Donald
Trump’s campaign knew Russian hackers
were going to provide emails to WikiLeaks
stolen from Democratic organizations,
including presidential candidate Hillary Clin-
ton’s campaign.
AP Photo/Matthew Barakat
Chelsea Manning addresses the media outside federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday,
March 5.
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