Venezuela's electricity crisis worsens despite investment promises

In Maracaibo, Elianne Flores sleeps on a mattress beside her front door to catch a little air during the stifling nights. Her experience reflects the worsening electricity crisis affecting millions of Venezuelans, despite promises of new investment after Nicolás Maduro left power.

Flores sometimes sleeps in the bedroom with her husband when temperatures fall. He remains bedridden after a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body, and he also has diabetes. A rechargeable fan offers limited relief, while a failed transformer has cut off the electricity needed to refrigerate his insulin.

Residents in the Santa Clara neighborhood of northern Maracaibo were theoretically supposed to receive about six hours of rationing. Instead, Flores and her family keep the insulin in a refrigerator connected by an extension cord to a neighbor's home that still has power. Without electricity, they draw water from a tank with a bucket, bathe her husband using a small container and rely on a flashlight for daily tasks.

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As there is no electricity, we have to draw water from the tank with a bucket and bathe my husband with a small container. We always have to walk around with a little flashlight to do everything and bathe using a container.

Zulia, the oil-producing state in northwestern Venezuela, has endured blackouts for more than 15 years. Residents said the situation appeared to stabilize in 2025, but in recent months outages have lasted for days without warning and spread to other parts of the country.

Efraín Rincón of Consultores 21 said the crisis had worsened significantly. He said daily interruptions affected 99% of households in Zulia and about 98% in the Andes, while Caracas recorded outages in 82% of homes. The problem, he said, had gone beyond Zulia and was becoming national. The article also reports that the situation worsened in February, amid promises of oil and electricity investment, and that Venezuela signed a strategic alliance with General Electric on Wednesday.

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The data say that 99% of households in Zulia are affected by power interruptions each day. In the Andes region we are at roughly the same level, 98%, and in the capital, Caracas, it is 82%.