Guaido calls high court request invalid, Venezuelans scrounging for water

Caracas — The head of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled Parliament, Juan Guaido, who has been recognized as the country’s legitimate president by more than 50 nations, said Monday that the Supreme Court ‘s request to lift his parliamentary immunity lacks validity.

“There’s no lifting of immunity of any kind because ... (such a request) is invalid,” the opposition leader told reporters at the close of a public event in downtown Caracas a few hours after the high court’s decision became known.

Supreme Court (TSJ) Chief Justice Maikel Moreno announced Monday that he had declared Guaido to be in “contempt” for having flouted a prohibition on leaving Venezuela imposed on him, adding that he had asked the government-supporting National Constitutional Assembly (ANC) to “cancel” his parliamentary immunity.

Guaido said that the TSJ’s magistrates had not ruled that his immunity must be lifted but rather “bounced” the matter to the government-backing ANC, a legislative forum that is not recognized by the opposition or by numerous countries.

“This is persecution, dictatorship ... Have no doubt that they want to see me under arrest. It’s clear that they want to do it ... but there’s no worry about that,” Guaido said.

The parliamentary chief said that the TSJ decision came after the Nicolas Maduro government took issue with the dozens of anti-government protests staged on Sunday against the widespread power blackouts that began to come much more frequently starting on March 7.

“What bothers them is that we’re calling people to the street and the people (have) turned out ... We’re going to continue moving along the path towards freedom, toward the end of the usurpation” of power, which is how Guaido and the opposition refer to Maduro’s inauguration in mid-January to a second six-year term in office.

A few minutes before Guaido spoke a group of unidentified people set off a tear gas canister near the site.

Later, while the politician was speaking, EFE noted three explosions near the site, although no further details were immediately available about their location or cause.

Meanwhile, Maduro on Monday fired Gen. Luis Motta Dominguez as Electric Energy minister and named engineer Igor Gaviria to replace him amid the ongoing blackout crisis being experienced by the country in recent weeks.

In an obligatory televison and radio broadcast, Maduro said that the new minister is an electrical engineer with 25 years of experience in the industry and that he will also preside over the state-run Corpoelec electricity corporation.

Gaviria takes the helm at the ministry a day after the government launched an electricity rationing plan “for the new phase that we have to open in the course of the electricity war,” Maduro said.

All across the capital, Caracas residents on Monday are trying to get back to their normal routines on a workday that has been cut by half due to the electricity rationing announced by the Maduro government and that is keeping large portions of the Venezuelan capital and wide swaths of the country in the dark.

The capital has been experiencing power blackouts in certain zones but things are apparently going relatively normally after some people took to the streets on Sunday to protest the lack of electricity and potable water.

The main public transportation service, the metro, is not operating on Monday, and so the Transportation Ministry has made special buses available to ferry people around the city.

However, along the streets one can observe a moderate flow of people on foot, while some of the bus stops are crammed with people waiting for a vehicle to take them on their routes.

According to February figures from the Interunion Transportation Command, which includes several transportation workers’ associations, at least 90 percent of the 300,000 vehicles that cover the various routes around the country are “technically broken down” because of the high cost of certain replacement parts and the complete lack of others.

On Monday, the public schools are not open as per orders from the government, but some private universities like the Andres Bello Catholic University and Monteavila decided to continue with their academic and administrative activities despite the problems.

Amid all this, in the Venezuelan interior, in states like Zulia in the northwest, Merida in the west, Anzoategui in the north and at least 10 others, residents are reporting “intermittent” electricity outages, presumably as per the rationing being implemented by the government.

On Sunday evening, Maduro announced the start of a 30-day electricity rationing plan, the amount of time authorities hope will allow them to resolve the multiple problems with the power grid that began on March 7 with the first of a series of blackouts that the regime blames on “sabotage” it says was and is being perpetrated by the opposition and the United States.

The president provided no details about how the rationing will proceed, but he asked the public for patience and “strength” amid the difficulties.

Because of the electricity outages, the supply of potable water has also been affected, since there is no power to run the pumps, and - the government says - authorities are working to restore service and take care of people in the most seriously affected zones by sending in tanker trucks to distribute water.

Residents of the shantytowns strewn over the hills of the capital look for water from pipes, fountains and abandoned cisterns without regard for their political affiliation, patiently filling containers, decanters or big bottles to take the precious liquid back home with them.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re in resistance because if we were just an agricultural country, none of this would be happening,” said Orlando Iturbe, a 47-year-old businessman, standing before some pipes out of which water is running at an abandoned construction site in the capital’s downtown.

He repeats the theory that the opposition and the United States are to blame for sabotaging the electricity grid, the story that the Maduro regime has pushed to explain why - since March 7 - the country has been experiencing repeated power outages, each lasting several days, that have prevented the electric pumps from sending water through the pipes.

“It’s unconventional warfare, which is our modern war if we were a country that didn’t have any more crops ... Because we have all kinds of wealth, what happens? The United States wants the whole pie,” he said.

Behind him, Pascual Escalona is watching the man with an amazed look on his face until Iturbe starts criticizing the opposition and then he can’t contain himself any longer.

“What opposition? The one who has the power here is the government!” he says angrily, sparking an argument in which they wind up berating each other.

Escalona is a retiree from the Graphic Arts who, like Iturbe, lives in La Pastora. He’s tired, he says, confirming that these days he only received 18,000 bolivares (about $5) a month from his pension, and that’s not enough to buy even a carton of eggs.

“We were happy here. We had a few beers, we messed around, we screwed around and now we’re hungry. Look, no light, no telephone, we don’t have a damn thing,” he said.

“Now, brother? We’re looking for water like a bunch of a--holes. This is a real humiliation. They’ve got us humiliated!” he added.

Not far away, dozens of vehicles are parked along Avenida Baralt, which circles Avila Hill, while hundreds of people scour around tirelessly for water in the streams and drains.

Alexander, a 45-year-old peddler, says that over the past five days he climbed up and down to one of the streams to bring 50 buckets of water home for washing, drinking and cooking.

“What are we going to do? You boil it and you drink it. We’re not going to die, man. The homeless drink dirty water and nothing happens to them,” he says.

“Hell, man, I don’t know how much more these people can take of this because the truth is that it’s a nuisance, it’s tough ... Another month? Weren’t there protests all over the place yesterday?” he said.