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LATIN AMERICA |
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Venezuelan Official Accused of Stealing
Electricity
CARACAS – A small opposition party said on
Friday that Venezuela’s new minister of
electricity has been guilty of stealing
power amid a crisis that has caused
prolonged blackouts across the Andean
nation.
A residence belonging to Minister Angel
Rodriguez is being supplied with electricity
via an illegal connection from a power pole,
the MAS party said.
The residence is located in Puerto La Cruz,
a city in the western state of Anzoategui.
The secretary of the MAS party in Anzoategui,
Richard Casanova, called the power theft
“unusual” in light of Rodriguez’s statements
urging Venezuelans “to accept rationing and
to conserve electricity.”
Rodriguez was sworn-in Tuesday as
Venezuela’s first minister of Electric
Energy, a post President Hugo Chavez created
a few weeks ago to address the oil-rich
country’s power crisis.
“With what moral authority will President
Chavez demand that the country save energy,
if his minister for the sector steals
power,” Casanova said at a press conference.
Chavez blames the crisis on “waste,” on
increased consumption accompanying economic
growth and on the government’s failure to
build new power plants quickly enough.
The day he installed Rodriguez as minister,
Chavez ordered all government entities to
cut electricity use by 20 percent and
announced plans for a new rate structure to
reward customers who use less power and
penalize the profligate.
But the head of the Fetraelec union
representing electrical workers, Angel Navas,
told the press Friday that nearly half of
the 4.6 million household customers lack
meters to measure how much power they are
using.
While El Universal newspaper cited a report
showing that the national electric grid
experiences leakage of up to 30 percent,
with much of that attributable to theft of
power. EFE
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