The government is suspending electrical power for four hours every other day throughout Venezuela as a move that intensifies rationing amidst an energy shortage in the country. The presidents of the state electricity companies of Caracas, Zulia and Tachira states announced plans to ration four hours that will apply immediately. The head of the state-run company Electricity of Caracas, Javier Alvarado, told reporters that starting today the outages will last for four hours every two days, that they are seeking to address the "energy deficit of 12%" generated by failures in the Guri dam. Confronted with the risks that the Guri dam has begun facing, the government imposed a reduction in the hours of stores and shopping malls and obligated residential, commercial and industrial areas to reduce monthly energy consumption by 20 percent. The government has also closed some lines and cells of state-owned enterprises Aluminio del Caroni SA (Alcasa) Industria Venezolana de Aluminio CA (Venalum) and Siderurgica del Orinoco (Sidor), which are important in the local construction industry.
Tachira state Judge José Hernán Oliveros upheld the custodial measure against journalist Gustavo Azócar at a hearing on Tuesday, citing a flight risk and prolonging the incarceration of Azócar, who has been in detention since July 29, 2009. The president of the National College of Journalists (CNP), William Echeverria, was present at the hearing and was surprised by ruling. Maria Rico, Azócar's wife, once again denounced the measure. "How can they say that there is imminent danger of escape, when my husband went to court regularly for forty-two months in a row, complying with the appearance schedule before he was sent to the central state penitentiary?" she asked. The new hearing which will address his alleged crimes of falsifying private document and fraud, was scheduled for this Thursday 14 January, at ten o'clock in the morning.
The political opposition organizations which include the Democratic Confederal Bureau (MUD), issued an official statement about the devaluation of the bolivar, as they believe it will generate more inflation, more corruption, more imports of goods and fewer quality jobs. In a document accessed by Correo del Caroní, the bureau called the "exchange rate adjustment", the name it prefers to give the measure, "the result of a bad economic policy that has led to the destruction of national productivity and caused the deterioration of the productivity of workers and enterprises. For the political organizations that signed the report, the devaluation corresponds to short-term measures that have nothing to do with the welfare of Venezuelans, and whose sole purpose is for the government to have more financial resources for the campaign.
Fernando Morgado, president of Consecomercio lamented the devaluation of the bolivar which he said would bring further impoverishment, especially in the neediest sectors of the country. "Our currency has been devalued to 2.70 and 4.30, Consecomercio regrets this very much and insists that this is the result of bad policies so and we cannot conceive of a devaluation if it is not combined with other decisions such as correcting public spending and making a total change to the economic cabinet", said Morgado. "This we say in the face of repeated demonstrations that this country after 10 years has been received one of the largest amounts of foreign exchange but we nevertheless have a devaluation that will impoverish us all but particularly those with less income," he said Morgado.
The secretary general of Democratic Action, Henry Ramos Allup, accused the minister of Energy and Petroleum Rafael Ramirez of negotiating with parallel market dollars. "They're going to modify the Law against Illegal Exchange so that Venezuela's central bank can maintain the balance of parallel dollars. Wonderful news President Chavez, but will you punish those who traffic in the black market?", he asked, adding that PDVSA's "has the privilege of exchanging US dollars" to speculate and play the upside. "You allowed Ramirez, violating the law, to traffic in dollars (...) Of course not going to punish him because he manages the cashier (...) Rafael Ramirez knows a lot. If he goes, then the government goes as well," he said. "If you, Mr. President, want to know where corruption comes from, look in your own house," he advised. In the coming days, he said, he will present "evidence" of despotism in government.
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