Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recently announced that the US is conducting an “electric war” against the country. According to him, this represents a broader attack of “US imperialism against our people”.
The electric war announced and led by the US imperialism against our people will be defeated. Neither anyone nor anything may overcome the people of Bolívar and Chávez. Let's get the greatest unity of the patriots!
— Nicolás Maduro (@maduro_en) March 12, 2019
On Monday, the Venezuelan president said that “an electrical power coup is in full swing”.
“When we already had the country connected and we were going to proceed with a cargo management plan, there was a coup via the electromagnetic route to the transmission lines,” he said.
Since the beginning of the attempted coup d’état in Venezuela, there have been several serious interruptions in the functioning of the national power system (National Electric System – SEN), which led to blackouts of entire cities on March 30 (in 21 of 23 states).
Causes of electric-grid attacks
The Venezuelan authorities emphasize that the Americans are undertaking sabotage in order to create intolerable conditions for the inhabitants and to provoke new unrest – and in the long run, to bring about a coup d’état. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Venezuela, the cause of the failure was a gunman attacking the station. The United States is engaged in what are essentially acts of terrorism against critical infrastructure in Venezuela… and furthermore, the politicians that initiated these attacks answer directly to US national security advisor John Bolton.
However, Maduro is not planning to give up, making clear that his government will not allow a catastrophic situation to develop in the country. He has already appointed a new Minister of Energy, Igor Gaviria, alongside other government office reshuffles. He also restored the Ministry of Science and Technology of Venezuela in order to help “win the electric war.”
What are the benefits of attacking Venezuela?
Experts emphasize that in the event of a successful attack on the Venezuelan power-grid, it will be possible to provoke mass protests in the country. This, in turn, will allow Washington to realize and justify a violent invasion of the republic.
In addition to the opposition, which is heavily supported by the United States, the conflict may be beneficial to neighboring Colombia, which has strongly supported opposition figure Juan Guaido’s bid for the presidency of Venezuela. Guaido has already told the people of the country to take to the streets and protest, and called for Operation Liberty to seize power in the country.
However, Guaido himself is hardly consequential– many other politicians could fill his role. If the people truly opposed Maduro, they would have long since been removed from power without the help of the West.
The geopolitical goal of the United States is to seize control Venezuela and its resources, as well as to ensure the loyalty of local authorities.
Washington has already prepared a plan to “help” Venezuela if Maduro is ever forced out of office, offering to provide serious financial support… including $200m in new aid for Venezuela and $200m for neighbouring countries taking in those fleeing. The plan was put forward Senators Bob Menendez и Marco Rubio.
Maduro’s prospects
A critical moment for the Bolivian Republic has arrived – they need to act quickly and put loyal and energetic politicians into power who are ready to make serious and difficult decisions.
Maduro has already approved a plan to fully restore the republic’s electrical system and introduced standards for the production, distribution and consumption of electricity over the next 30 days. He expects that this will help bring balance to energy production, its safe transmission, its maintenance and its consumption.
The US underestimated Maduro, who despite everything retains the support of the army and the population, as well as foreign allies like China, Turkey and Russia. The United States understand it, and even warned Russia to stay out of Venezuela. “The United States has its responses being prepared,” Mike Pompeo said.
But Maduro is ready for war (not only electric one) – he has called on the population to stock up on water supplies in case of new attacks on the power-grid, and said that in the near future a large number of tanks would be manufactured to be installed in the people’s communes.