At a clinic in Valencia, Venezuela, the dialysis machine attached to Onasis Munoz suddenly stopped running. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered and went out, plunging the room into darkness.
It was not the first time a blackout had interrupted one of the three dialysis sessions Munoz must undergo each week to replace the waste-filtering and fluid-removal function of his failed kidneys.
According to Munoz, 34, power had long been cut every few days in some areas of Carabobo state. But in recent months it has become a daily occurrence, each outage lasting about seven hours. The clinic's backup batteries are drained, and its emergency generator no longer works.
He said the relentless blackouts have disrupted his treatment and caused a marked decline in his health. "I get home exhausted, as if I had just run a marathon," he said.
But often there is no electricity at home either, while the weather in recent weeks has been sweltering. "I can't turn on the air conditioning. The heat and the mosquitoes keep me from resting. There is no relief at all," Munoz said.
Across Venezuela, prolonged outages are stoking public anger as supply to households, businesses and essential services becomes increasingly unstable. Part of the cuts are deliberate rationing by the interim government of President Delcy Rodriguez.
Simmering frustration has spilled onto the streets, where protesters stage "cacerolazos" – the traditional form of protest in which people bang pots and pans. Some have also blocked roads and set tires alight. The power crisis has also raised concerns about how the government is managing the country's vast oil resources, its main source of revenue.
"We are desperate. It is impossible to understand why a country so rich in resources is almost entirely in the dark," said Patricia Cueva, a lawyer in Maracaibo, the capital of oil-rich Zulia state. "We cannot rest. We cannot work. Our children are crying."
