Jesús Armas on Tocoma agreement: "They do it by hand, without public tender and behind people's backs"

Jesús Armas, an engineer and political spokesperson, has strongly criticized a recent government agreement with the Latin American company Impsa for the supposed recovery of the Manuel Piar Hydroelectric Central, historically known as Tocoma.

Armas denounced the procedure as a direct execution, deliberately avoiding public bidding processes and lacking the transparency required for citizens. He stated the government's decision shows an "absolute disconnection with the technical reality of Venezuela," arguing that reactivating Tocoma is neither an urgent nor a strategic priority for stabilizing the nation's struggling power sector.

"With just a third of that investment, Planta Centro could be rehabilitated, achieving a much greater, more efficient, and faster impact for the stabilization of the National Electric System," Armas, an infrastructure expert, explained. He recalled the significant financial damage this hydroelectric project has inflicted on the country's finances.

Armas detailed that the project's initial budget was around $3 billion. However, after awarding contracts to the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, implicated in the Lava Jato scandal, and applying continuous addendums and contract modifications, the final cost soared above $9 billion. "Today, fourteen years after its supposed inauguration, Tocoma produces 0 megawatts of the projected 2,160. The work is not there, nor is the money," he asserted.

According to Armas, the root of the problem lies in institutional breakdown and the ruling group's "hijacking of the state." He warned that ignoring national laws governing public contracting and bidding creates a legal vacuum, marginalizing civil society – the financiers of these projects and the rightful owners of energy assets – from the country's restructuring plans. Armas insisted that any true reconstruction of the national electric system must adhere strictly to energy plans developed over years by Venezuelan technicians and academics. "Infrastructure priorities, what to do and how to do it, cannot be imposed by a regime that is the mother of the problem," he concluded.

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Lo hacen a dedo, sin licitación pública y de espaldas a la gente