The rainy season has brought timely relief to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who faced mounting opposition pressures as chronic drought threatened to shut down the country’s power generation system.
At the height of the crisis earlier in 2010, caused by depleting water reserves that forced partial closure or malfunction of power generation turbines, Chavez publicly invoked the help of God and unveiled grandiose plans for manipulating clouds to induce rain.
Although the drought was widely seen behind Venezuela’s crippling power blackouts, opposition critics of Chavez blamed the crisis on poor government planning and inadequate investment in power generation units.
Full story: Venezuela rain eases opposition pressure on embattled Chavez