Black Water That Looks Like Crude Oil And Smells Like Sewer Is Pouring Out Of Taps In Venezuela
On Wednesday, in San Diego, Venezuela, a country with one of the largest oil supplies in the world and the poorest, hungriest populations, woke up to black water pouring out of their taps. After weeks of power outages and months of water supply problems, residents are reporting a thick, dark liquid that reporting looks like oil, or black water coming out of their sinks and showers. There are also reports that the water smells like sewage, and some believe that the water lines are damaged and have been contaminated.
Black water running from taps in a country in the midst of a major humanitarian crisis and political upheaval is another major blow to every day citizens where food, medical supplies, and practically all other basic needs are scarce. Thirteen thousand doctors have left Venezuela in the past four years, jobs are scarce, and the country has one of the world’s highest crime rates. More than three million Venezuelan’s have left the country since 2015.Many have fled to nearby Columbia and many to the United States.
President Nicolas Maduro blames the US backed opposition leader Juan Guadio for launching cyber attacks on the country’s power and water systems, while Guadio blames Maduro, who has been the country’s leader since 2013, of neglecting its infrastructure. The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, cites Maduro’s socialism which he says has resulted in years and years of neglect to Venezuela’s energy system, saying, in a speech on March 11 that “socialism is a recipe for economic ruin.”
Meanwhile residents of San Diego are unable to bath or find clean water, and citizens all over Venezuela have had to resort to searching local drains and sewers for water to drink.
Many in the US are turning to Twitter for Venezuelan citizen news on the conditions in their country.
While the black water streaming from taps is a new development, people have been unable to get the needs met in hospitals for months. Sarita Cancion couldn’t help pointing out yesterday’s American concerns over the Instagram outage while people have been dying in hospitals during the most recent energy blackout.
Is U.S.-backed Guaidó sabotaging Venezuela and the Maduro government, or has Maduro neglected the country and its people?
Many suffering in Venezuela are optimistic about Guaidó and what he could bring as the leader of the country. Some are concerned that Guaidó is only being supported by the Trump administration because of US interests in the countries vast oil reserves. Guaidó has vowed to open the reserves after Chavez and Maduro have kept them nationalized.
Carlos Lasek, who recorded a video of black water coming from a tap in San Diego, Venezuela, blames Chavismo, or Chavez-style governance adopted by Maduro, for the situation there.
“You ask for water, they give you bullets.”
Widespread protests have been reported in Venezuelan cities and reports of Venezuelan police forces attempting to block protesters. The man in this video accuses armed Maduro supporters and the National Bolivarian Police of trying to stop protesters for exercising their constitutional rights, saying “While we have not power; we have no water; we don’t have the basic public services of any normal country in this world, and we are here raising our voices to ask them to stop, to demand them to stop, to give us minimal conditions. And here they are armed to the teeth with weapons and with a anti-riot gear and everything that they shouldn’t answer the people with. Let everyone in this world know, that you ask them for water, they give you bullets.”
Some on Twitter are not trying to get involved in the politics. Some are just trying to send help.
Due to the confusing rhetoric on both sides, it’s easy to get confused when trying to figure out if Maduro is failing his people because he’s greedy or because he’s a socialist. And it’s difficult to fully understand whether Guaidó can bring about positive economic change for the country by opening its oil reserves for profits, or if the US only supports him because they could make profits too. What is true is that is that the majority of people in Venezuela need help now.
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