Ok let me explain. The electricity of this country was actually quite good, and we used to export it to both Colombia and Brazil.
In the 60ies and 70ies, that large dam project in the river Guri was completed, it is the third biggest in the continent. It was done to complement the large iron and still mill production of the southern part of the country near the dam, and also supply the rest of the nation. When completed i think not even half of it was needed.
The population grew, and the economy, but everything was well kept and maintained thru the 80ies and 90ies, slowly all the old fossil fuel plants were decommissioned as this clean hydro electricity was plenty for all and there was excess to export too. The earlier governments were "lite" socialists, so called "reformists" (social-democrats). Since the 70ies not much was done to expand this generation and it was deemed unnecessary.
And then came socialism. At first, things seemed fine, with the high oil price socialists did what socialists know to do best: increase spending, and get in debt with others because oil price would never ever go down and more social programs are always needed than worrying about them being sustainable (they never are anyway), and the corruption this makes is incredible.
In the meantime all the democratic institutions were dismantled, and government centered solely on the presidential figure. The charismatic leader Chávez seemed to do things by decree faster than the bureaucratic institutions from the past, being a military commander he essentially ran the country like a commander in a military base, and weakened all those pesky institutions such as the legislative and judiciary branch, no one needs those balances and checks when the commander himself can do a far better job... And then he died, not before appointing Maduro as successor, no one knows why him instead of others. And the oil prices fell. Maduro did not want to stop or reduce any spending, and kept doing it as if nothing had changed, but the money was over. So he ordered the central bank to add zeroes to all the State bank accounts. Now you know there the hyperinflation comes from...
During these last 10 or so years, with inflation and a worsening situation, parts stopped coming for the (way too many) State owned companies, including electricity. Preventive maintenance was stopped and neglected completely. What used to be routine scheduled equip replacement, became more like: "Only if it blows up change it. We need to save what little left we have..." So the time bomb was ticking.
Had Venezuela ever had nationwide blackouts? Yes, even during Chávez in 2010, but after a mere 4 hours later everything was back to normal. But that was then. A backup plan was devised and countless millions of dollars spent, to have enough fossil fuel plants ready in case the dam ever failed again (usually its not the dam, but the very long very high voltage transmission line). By 2011 or so these were put into operation, so we had double what was needed, with the fossil fuel plants switched off most of the time.
And they slowly took everything from those plants, dismantled them, sold them, etc... corruption, corruption, corruption.
Well, socialism spending everything, the budget not cutting it anymore, all purchases stopped. First they start cannibalizing "non essential" things to repair others (since now new purchases were allowed anymore), and to "save" from purchasing parts. When there is no way or means to buy the parts, try to "repair" what we have. Oh and those old transformers taken off by their scheduled end of life, see if you can retro fit them and put them back to work... So now when something blows up after being way past their lifetime, replace it with the things that were also past their lifetime but are still "looking good"...
And then there is the maintenance related to keeping the foliage away from the transmission line. A "menial" work but they had no budget to keep doing it anymore, so meh. A little fire in the woods (which are seasonal in this country) a rogue animal there and poof, there goes the electricity again.
Venezuela has access to the Chinese market, anyone knows China can make ANYTHING. But we are already huge debts with them, and they refused Maduro to give it more loans anymore. If they hadn't driven bankrupt the country, they would have provided anything, as in fact they did years before, with buses, cars, military equipment etc. They want to blame the "sanctions" now that the US did sanction the individuals, but only because the truth of the matter gets conveniently hidden.
Just imagine for a minute there were no "sanctions", and any US company could still deal with them. They wouldn't, because the country IS broke and no one is lending money to them anymore. Socialists just neglect to tend their own debts, its far easier to blame it on "Imperialism" rather to reduce spending and balance the budget.
Since March 8 there have been 5 or more nationwide blackouts, after the first one they switched off all auto control, went to manual, and have failed to keep things running smooth again. Overloading transformers, making mistakes with loads, we sometimes get high voltage, low voltage, and most often than not, blackouts for hours. Maduro shamelessly announced "load balancing" (rationing) but zero schedule, people can't even prepare themselves, it goes and comes without warning, who cares if there is a patient in surgery or people in an elevator, they just don't care, because they suffer none of it.
Socialists are super hypocrites, they make a super rich privileged class, themselves, and throw everyone else into the utmost misery, and make sure yo keep a strong police state to keep the masses oppressed, with storm groups at their beck and call do the dirty job and keep everyone quiet or else...
When Chavez was the president of Venezuela, they were actually doing quite well. Medicare was free and gasoline was available at $0.1 per gallon. But Maduro proved to be really incompetent. He should just step down and take a flight to Cuba.
Gasoline is still super cheap, its much less than that, you'd need satoshis to be able to express it, i could do the math... But all of that is pointless if the "price" means an entire nation suffering in misery. People can't live by drinking gasoline... But the corruption behind it is overwhelming.
6 VES per liter. 3500 VES = 1 USD, so 1 USD buys 583 (95 octane) liters so 0.0017 USD per liter or about 30 satoshis. Don't laugh, the price in human lives is not worth it. Oh yes, a gallon is nearly 4 liters so 113ish sats per gallon. There is also 91 octane, and that costs a third. Diesel is much much lower.
Electricity price is also ridiculous, but what is the use if they let the grid break completely? Why can't socialists understand that neglecting a social program to save the budget, means saving the entire country from a much worse situation? Ah, because they "hate" economy... That is why.
