Venezuelan citizens are mocking President Nicolas Maduro’s announment that all Fridays for the next two months will be holidays in a desperate attempt to save energy.
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Venezuelans will now enjoy “long weekends” to curb the menace of power crunch the nation’s currently facing. I call on families, on the youth, to join this plan with discipline, with conscience and extreme collaboration to confront this extreme situation.
The administration is hoping that a series of moves (including forcing malls and hotels to generate some of their own electricity) will help reduce power usage by at least 20 percent.
President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday temporarily reduced the working week in Venezuela from five to four days as part of a 60-day plan to deal with the national energy emergency caused by the ongoing drought. The level is now around 243 meters, Maduro said. It isn’t clear if the mandate also applies to private sector workers.
People said the new measure would not do much, since workers will simply go home and still use electronics and lights.
Though it has the largest proven oil reserve, the Venezuelan economy is a mess with inflation and constant blackouts.
Water behind the Guri Dam, which produces 70 percent of the country’s electricity, is so low that the government may have to shut it down, crippling the country.
“We estimate that the resumption of rains in April due both to seasonal patterns and the waning of El Nino should lead to the recovery of dam levels, allowing both Colombia and Venezuela to avoid further rationing”, he said.
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Maduro said he will send the law to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to determine its legality. “Clothing and hair dryers use a lot of electricity”.
