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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Energy & Infrastructure

Palavecino’s collapsing public services and roads put residents’ lives at risk

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Residents and community representatives in Venezuela’s Palavecino municipality say failing electricity, roads, waste collection and public safety services have reached critical levels.
  • Cabudare experiences power interruptions lasting six to eight hours a day, affecting commercial activity and patients who depend on refrigeration or daily dialysis.
  • Rural residents report dangerous potholes and darkness on connecting roads, while activists say people with reduced mobility lack safe access to public spaces.

Power cuts lasting six to eight hours each day have left central Cabudare’s public offices and businesses struggling, while residents say the broader collapse of services is putting lives at risk. The municipality of Palavecino, in Lara state, is facing complaints about electricity, roads, lighting, waste collection and accessibility.

Gamal Suárez, a local resident, said the outages affect the area around the mayor’s office, the property registry, the public notary and the municipal court. He said the interruptions also threaten people whose treatment depends on reliable electricity.

We have patients with diabetes whose medicines require continuous refrigeration and people with kidney disease who depend on daily dialysis. When the electricity stops, proper care is interrupted and citizens’ lives are placed in imminent danger.

— Gamal SuárezA resident described how electricity cuts affect medical treatment.

“We have patients with diabetes whose medicines require continuous refrigeration and people with kidney disease who depend on daily dialysis. When the electricity stops, proper care is interrupted and citizens’ lives are placed in imminent danger,” Suárez said. He estimated that more than 150,000 families are directly affected.

The deterioration extends into agricultural and residential areas of the José Gregorio Bastidas parish. Héctor Zavarce, speaking for several rural communities, said the road connecting them has become almost impassable. Large potholes, no nighttime lighting and the absence of health or police facilities have left residents exposed.

The road is destroyed and dark. We have neither healthcare nor security. We have already had one fatality from someone swerving to avoid the potholes, and the authorities still have not responded.

— Héctor ZavarceA rural resident described the condition of roads linking communities in Palavecino.

“The road is destroyed and dark. We have neither healthcare nor security. We have already had one fatality from someone swerving to avoid the potholes, and the authorities still have not responded,” Zavarce said. He also reported that urban waste collection operates only occasionally on Saturdays, prompting illegal dumping along roadsides and streambeds.

Activist Marianny Linares said the failing infrastructure particularly harms wheelchair users, bedridden patients and families with young children. “There is no accessibility in Palavecino. There are no ramps on the main sidewalks or conditions for a person with reduced mobility to travel without risking their life on the shared public roadway,” she said.

There is no accessibility in Palavecino. There are no ramps on the main sidewalks or conditions for a person with reduced mobility to travel without risking their life on the shared public roadway.

— Marianny LinaresThe activist highlighted barriers facing people with reduced mobility.
About this summary

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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