Maduro Changes Time Zone to Battle Venezuela Power Crisis
- Drought cuts Guri hydroelectric dam water-level to record low
- Order reverses shift instituted in 2007 by Hugo Chavez
The Catia slum in Caracas.
Photographer: Meridith Kohut/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stepped up measures aimed at reducing electricity consumption in a bid to stave off a full blown crisis including scrapping a change to the nation’s time zone that had last been altered by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez in 2007.
Faced with a prolonged drought pushing his country’s spotty electric grid to the point of collapse, Maduro also ordered Monday, April 18, a holiday and said he will further curtail power use by shopping malls. Water levels at the country’s largest hydroelectric dam, which services nearly 75 percent of the power to the capital, Caracas, and its 3 million inhabitants, is dropping to record lows.