In the midst of a second nationwide power outage in Venezuela, the vast majority of the country is engulfed in a massive internet outage. The first electrical blackout, which swept across the nation on Thursday, left Venezuela with only two percent connectivity amid the ongoing presidential crisis. Most of the country has been offline since Thursday with limited or no connectivity being reported across large swaths of the South American nation. The NetBlocks Group, a private internet watchdog organization based in the UK, reported on Saturday that 96 percent of the country was offline:
Update: New data shows profound and sustained impact on #Venezuela's telecommunications infrastructure after second nationwide power outage with 96% of country remaining offline #SinLuz #ApagonNacional #9Mar ⬇️https://t.co/U2wV1aJihu pic.twitter.com/ejO8wsMto2
— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) March 9, 2019
The group provided an update on Sunday noting that 20 percent now have connectivity.
Gains in connectivity have been lost through a series of three distinct new outages as shown in NetBlocks’ network connectivity charts.
Internet-scale network measurements indicate which regions have been affected and to what extent. During previous network and power outages, concerns have been raised about attacks and military activity, and the risk of human rights violations perpetrated under the cover of darkness.
The chart below shows a precipitous drop in internet connectivity on Thursday with a partial recovery on Saturday followed by another large drop on Sunday.
Update: Real-time network data shows setbacks for #Venezuela power and connectivity with only 20% of the country online following new disruptions #SinLuz #MegaApagon #10Mar ⬇️https://t.co/8pljYDEYae pic.twitter.com/9zmyk1to6I
— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) March 10, 2019
“Venezuela experiences frequent power cuts, and Venezuela started power rationing and reduced its electricity consumption to about 14,000 megawatts at peak hours because of the economic crisis in 2018,” NetBlocks said. “However the nationwide outages are unprecedented in magnitude, extent and duration. NetBlocks historic data suggest that incidents of this scale are vanishingly rare.”
On March 4, NetBlocks reported that the Venezuelan government had blocked YouTube and SoundCloud and partially blocked Twitter.
“Twitter image and video servers and platform backends have been blocked in Venezuela from 3:10 PM UTC on state provider CANTV (AS8048) and its mobile network Movistar, as interim leader Juan Guaidó is set to arrive in Caracas after a tour of neighboring countries,” the organization explained. “The restrictions have been implemented as the leader calls supporters to the streets under the hashtags #4MVzlaALaCalle, #VamosVzla and #VamosJuntosALaCalle.”
Confirmed: Twitter platform, backend and image servers restricted in #Venezuela from 3:10 PM UTC (11:10 AM VET) as citizens take to streets under hashtag #4MVzlaALaCalle
following Guaidó return #KeepItOn ⬇️https://t.co/g64fOf40y2 pic.twitter.com/RBDk4biqrE— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) March 4, 2019
Users were reportedly able to access Twitter’s homepage, but videos and images were not loading.
A Twitter user in Venezuela shared what he was seeing on the platform:
https://twitter.com/MeIsMenS/status/1102596781572001799
SoundCloud, an online streaming service, has been restricted since Feb. 27, when Guaidó tweeted out his audio recordings on the platform. “Guaidó has been a frequent target of state censorship during the ongoing crisis,” NetBlocks said.
On March 7 the group reported that “YouTube has been restricted by Venezuela’s state-run internet provider CANTV (AS8048) for over twenty hours, according to current network measurements from the NetBlocks internet observatory.” Netblock said that the restrictions coincided with live broadcasts from the National Assembly the day before.
The group warned that the internet outage “is likely to have had a significant and lasting impact on Venezuela’s ailing economy.”
“A study by Venezuelan daily Efecto Cocuyo in December using the NetBlocks and Internet Society Cost Of Shutdown Tool calculated that a total outage of connectivity alone would cost the economy more than 400 million US dollars per day,” said NetBlocks. “The impact for the present incident is likely to be even higher given the impact of power outages on industry and non-digital economies.”
On Saturday, Guaidó and Nicolas Maduro — whose disputed re-election in May has been widely delegitimized by the international community — held dueling rallies in the capital city of Caracas. Maduro, an anti-American conspiracy theorist, blamed the U.S. for the blackout, insisting that the electrical grid had been “hacked” and “sabotaged.” He claimed, without providing evidence, that an “international cyber-attack” carried out by the U.S. government and opposition forces was to blame for the ongoing outages.
“The electrical warfare announced and directed by the imperialist United States against our people will be defeated,” Maduro tweeted Friday. “I call for maximum unity patriots!”
He vowed to “clean” Venezuela’s state-run electric company to get rid of “traitors” and “infiltrators.”
The internet outages come at a critical moment for Guaidó, as he attempts to rally opposition forces to oust Maduro. “Such measures are known to be used by authorities to prevent the sharing of media from protests,” NetBlocks said.
Guaidó urged his followers on Saturday to remain strong in the face of the current crisis.
“We have been reporting the electrical crisis for years, and now, we have to alert in a responsible manner that this could also become the gasoline crisis, in addition to the water crisis we already have,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a staunch supporter of the Venezuelan opposition, took to Twitter on Sunday to blast the Maduro regime and highlight the developing humanitarian crisis:
FIVE PART THREAD ON SITUATION IN #VENEZUELA:
The crisis inside the country has taken a rapid & catastrophic turn over the last 72 hours. As bad as the humanitarian crisis was before,since Thursday it has become increasingly horrific.1/5
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2019
2/5
We are approaching 72 hours of a nationwide electrical blackout. Already facing growing food shortages,remaining food is spoiling & the prospect starvation is many is now real.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2019
3/5
Already facing severe fuel shortages,generator use has further depleted supplies. In the next few hours more generators will stop at hospitals because fuel is running out. Making matters even worse is that internet & cell service makes communications increasingly difficult.— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2019
4/5
As of 8:30pm last night 17 deaths have been reported in hospitals due to lack of electricity. The true number is higher.
Patients on life support,in neonatal ICU have died & more will die in coming hours. Dialysis patients face certain death if they don’t get services soon.— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2019
5/5
Experts warned for months that years of #MaduroRegime negligence would lead to this collapse of electricity system. And regime does not have the expertise to fix it.If massive amounts of aid isn’t delivered very soon, I fear we are headed for an unprecedented catastrophe.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2019
As PJM’s Rick Moran noted last week, “Events are spiraling toward some kind of climax, which may include military action by regional actors. With Maduro on the ropes, it probably wouldn’t take much of a push to get the Venezuelan army to act and depose the tyrant.”
Follow me on Twitter @pbolyard
