Venezuela, including its capital city of Caracas continues to experience power outages.
The country’s power system went down Mar. 7 and periodic black outs which are seriously crippling infrastructure, shops, hospitals and more continue. Public demonstrations and looting have been taking place furthering the unsafe conditions.
The government said the blackout was caused by an unspecified fault at the Guri hydropower plant, which provides 80 percent of the country’s electricity. The nearby San Geronimo A backup substation, which transmits a much weaker current along with a few smaller and less reliable thermoelectric plants have been operating intermittently allowing the government to send power to Caracas sporadically on a limited basis.
In a televised statement Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the recovery from the power outages will be “little by little.” A formal State of Emergency has been called which will allow the National Assembly to seek international cooperation or foreign intervention.
Flights to/from Venezuela are being impacted. Airlines have issued travel waivers as follows:
Copa – flexible rebooking options are available through Mar. 13.
Iberia – waivers are valid for flights through Mar. 26
TAP Air Portugal – is allowing flexible rebooking while current conditions continue
These waivers will likely be extended as the power outages continue and other carriers may also have flexible rebooking policies.
Check with your airline or your Adelman travel consultant for specific rebooking or cancelation options.
Travelers are advised to not only monitor airline flight status with regards to your specific itinerary but ground transportation and other land arrangements should also be reconfirmed.
Travelers should exercise extreme caution if traveling to Venezuela due to the very unstable and often unsafe conditions. Travelers should also note that the U.S. State Dept. already had a Level 4 travel advisory in place before the power outages. The Level 4 advice states, “Do not travel to Venezuela due to crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, and arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens.”
Please contact your Adelman travel consultant for additional information.