President of Ecuador decrees new state of exception due to serious energy crisis

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboadecreed once again this Friday a new state of emergency at national level for 60 days, this time due to the serious energy crisis that the country is going through, with blackouts that last up to eight hours due to the failure to meet national electricity demand legislation.

Through a decree, Noboa ordered “the mobilization and intervention of the National Police and the Armed Forces throughout the national territory, duly coordinated, to guarantee the security of critical energy infrastructure installations to prevent sabotage, terrorist attacks or other threats that may affect their functioning”.

LOOK HERE: Ecuador: Noboa suspends Thursday and Friday working hours amid energy crisis

In addition to this, the electricity supply to Colombiawhich is also facing a situation of severe drought that does not allow it to generate surplus electricity to export to Ecuador.

LOOK HERE: Daniel Noboa denounces “sabotage” and requests investigation into electricity cuts in Ecuador

This new state of exception occurs on the eve of the referendum called by Daniel Noboa for this Sunday where he intends to carry out with popular support a series of reforms in terms of security, justice, investments and employment.

It also comes less than three weeks after the end of the previous state of emergency, decreed at the beginning of January to address the wave of violence by organized crime gangs, following a series of attacks and violent actions that included the acquisition of TC Televisión channel by a group of armed men during a live broadcast.

LOOK HERE: Ecuador returns to blackouts due to drought in reservoirs and drop in Colombian imports

Thus, in the week of the referendum the blackouts returned Ecuadorsituation that Ecuadorians had already experienced at the end of last year due to another similar situation of drought in the main hydroelectric plants and a drop in the supply of Colombia.

LOOK HERE: Colombia stops exporting energy to Ecuador due to drought

On that occasion, the power cuts lasted up to four hours, half the current time, which Noboa attributed to alleged sabotage, to the point that his administration filed charges against twenty-two people for allegedly hiding information and not giving voice to the early warning. .

Among the people who are part of the presidential accusation is the former Minister of Energy and Mines Andrea Arrobo, whom Noboa asked to resign at a public event on Tuesday, after last Friday having ruled out that the blackouts would return to Ecuador in short time.

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Even the Presidency’s Communication Secretary, Roberto Izurieta, stated this Thursday that he has suspicions that the Mazar reservoir was deliberately emptied, which was denied by the Ecuador Electricity Corporation (Celec), which operates the aforementioned reservoir. .

According to data from this company, the level of the reservoir, located in the south of the Andean province of Azuay, whose capital is Cuenca, has been gradually decreasing since the beginning of this year, and apparently it did not rain enough during this period for it to be refilled.

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The prolonged power cuts forced the Government to decree the suspension of the working day and school classes for this Thursday and Friday, although many private companies continued to operate normally, as in Ecuador only three in ten people of working age have a formal job. .

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.