He President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, ordered the closure of companies and government offices on Thursday, April 18 and Friday, April 19 in the midst of a crippling lack of electricity ahead of a key national referendum scheduled for Sunday.
Noboa attributed the unprecedented measure to drought, but also to sabotage, without offering evidence. The energy crisis comes on the heels of a security crisis and a fiscal crisis that led him to seek help from the International Monetary Fund.
“They have given us stick and stick and stick without stopping, they have wanted to ruin us with sabotage in the electrical area” to undermine the support for his referendum, said Noboa, 36 years old, in Atacames, a coastal city hit hard by rising crime that has turned Ecuador in one of the most violent countries in Latin America.
The pro-mercado heir to a banana exporting fortune is asking voters in Sunday’s referendum to approve greater use of the military, as well as the extradition of Ecuadorian citizens to fight crime, and to overturn constitutional prohibitions on temporary work and international arbitration.
The drought is affecting other parts of the region where several countries like Ecuador depend heavily on hydroelectric energy. In Bogotá, capital of neighboring Colombia, water is being rationed, and the country has stopped exporting electricity to Ecuador as a measure to avoid its own blackouts.
Ecuador faces a deficit in energy supply of 22 to 27 gigawatts time starting this month, the Presidency reported. Due to the drought, the main reservoirs for power plantsincluding Mazar and Paute, have almost dried up, while the largest power plant, Coca-Codo Sinclair, has a water flow 40 percent below average.
However, the Government also blamed the problem on former Energy and Mines Minister Andrea Arrobo, whom Noboa replaced with Public Works Minister Roberto Luque on Tuesday, and to another 21 officials for the crisis. The Government promised to pay half of consumers’ electricity bills for this month.
The crisis hits Noboa’s credibility after the National Assembly passed a fast-track bill in January called the “no more blackouts law” which included a fund to maintain generation capacity thermoelectric.
Under President Rafael Correa, Ecuador borrowed heavily from China to finance a wave of hydroelectric plant construction, promising to use the steep slopes and heavy rains of the Andean foothills. to generate clean energy.
“To solve the problem, this is the time to import all diesel generators that there are in the world, free of tariffs,” Ortiz recommended.
