Days of darkness: Venezuelan national emergency is also environmental crisis

On the fifth day of the longest nationwide electrical blackout in Venezuelan history, an estimated 20 million people were without water because the public infrastructure had stopped working. In Guanare, the capital of Portuguesa state, thousands of people threw themselves into a local river to bathe, and brought containers from home to stock up on water. In the town of El Limón, in Aragua state, residents blocked access to neighboring Henri Pittier National Park because flocks of thirsty citizens had dried up a river almost entirely in their desperate search for water and damaged water distribution pipes. More…