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.
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