Socialist and oil-rich Venezuela entered a new chapter of economic despair Monday, as the authoritarian government shut off electricity for refrigerators to ration power.
The authoritarian government run by former bus driver and Hugo Chavez-confidant, President Nicolas Maduro, has also imposed daily four-hour blackouts across Venezuela. This extreme measure is set to last 40 days but will not include Caracas and Vargas states.
These measures are only the latest in a long line of drastic policies the government has implemented in recent months. The OPEC-member country has had trouble keeping the lights on, leading Maduro to recommend women not use hair dryers.
Low oil prices worldwide combined with years of chronically inefficient management of the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) have led to this disastrous situation. The country was even forced to shut down malls to save electricity back in February.
Government employees now have a four-day work week as yet another way of cutting down on power usage. Venezuela has been under a Socialist government since 1999 when the late Hugo Chavez was elected president.
The conservative opposition finally managed in December 2015 to win the country’s legislative elections and take control of the country’s National Assembly — the equivalent of Congress. Since the elections, there have been tensions over power sharing, which has led to stalemate and increased Socialist control.
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