FTS 16:30 30-08: Gradual reestablishment of Venezuelan power system after sabotage
30/08/2024
FTS 16.30
*W.H.O. confirms humanitarian polio vaccination in Gaza.
*53rd Pacific Islands Forum Summit comes to a close.
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These and many more stories now!
FTS 16.30
*W.H.O. confirms humanitarian polio vaccination in Gaza.
*53rd Pacific Islands Forum Summit comes to a close.
teleSUR
These and many more stories now!
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NewsTranscript
00:00The government of Venezuela reported gradual re-establishment of the national electricity
00:17system after that being subject to a sabotage.
00:24The World Health Organization confirmed a humanitarian polio vaccination for the population
00:29in the Gaza Strip.
00:34On Friday, the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting held its closing by endorsing
00:40a major joint policy initiative and reaching other regional achievements.
00:46Hello, welcome to From the South, I'm Ana Marrera from the Telesur headquarters in Caracas,
00:55Venezuela.
00:56For the News, stay with us.
01:10From Caracas, our correspondent and colleague Gladys Quezada updated us on how the Venezuelan
01:16people are facing Friday's attack on the national power grid.
01:20Hello, Gladys, tell us about it and give us an update, please.
01:24Yeah, Ana, hello, thanks for this time, thanks for the contact, and as I always say, thank
01:30for the opportunity to communicate and to inform our audience regarding what is going
01:34on in Venezuela.
01:35I have to stress and summarize some information from morning time, and I recall these dates
01:43and this time.
01:44At 4.50 a.m. on an early morning, there was announced an electricity cut, a sabotage against
01:51the power national grid here in Venezuela, which resulted in this lack of electricity,
01:58this lack of power here in Caracas, the capital of the country, as well as in other states.
02:05On day one, you know, people have been going out to work because they have to still moving
02:11on with their lives.
02:13So the commerces, the finances, and the banks and other centers have been operating with
02:18only cash transactions.
02:21I was reporting this before, and I have to stress this now, because the digital systems
02:27to access to these accounts, to maybe the cash, or maybe to the flow of money, in digital
02:33ways, digital means, those systems are down, so people cannot operate using their accounts,
02:40so they have to use only cash transactions.
02:42Moreover, the electrical power, the grid, the power grid, the electrical power has been
02:49coming back in some areas of the city, and it's been coming in and out, because it's
02:56still unstable, but I have to say that the data and internet services are recovered,
03:03are coming back, because we were experiencing a lack of these services just two hours ago,
03:09and now the service is restored partially, but is functioning at some level.
03:14Also I have to say that the government issued a plan, and I was informing that, but I have
03:19to stress it, that the government was issuing a plan to provide services of transportation
03:25with 250 buses of the Metro Bus Line, which is the line of buses that substitutes the
03:32metro or the subway here in Caracas when this kind of accidents or any urgency happens.
03:38In this case, the government was saying that the subway lines are unable and they cannot
03:44operate because of the power cut, but the decision was to use these 250 buses.
03:52I have to explain something, because maybe for someone who is from outside Venezuela
03:58or doesn't have the information on Venezuela, they don't know this, okay?
04:02So here in Caracas, there are two main lines, one that goes north to south, and other that
04:07goes east to west.
04:09In that case, those two main lines, they move a big part or a large part of the 7 million
04:15people that live in Caracas, okay?
04:18The residents of Caracas that have to go out to work or maybe to do their daily activities.
04:23So in this case, those 250 buses are trying to supply this service to those 7 million
04:31people who are users of the subway lines.
04:34And also, as I wanted to explain, the traffic is going on normally.
04:39The National Armed Guard forces, they are serving as facilitators for the traffic.
04:45They are standing in the corners, they are standing in the streets, allowing some cars
04:50to go by and others they have to stop, and allowing the pedestrians to go and walk and
04:55cross the streets and do their activities.
04:58Moreover, the government also has announced the support for 79 healthcare facilities,
05:04because this power grid attack, this sabotage against the electric system is also going
05:10to affect, is trying to affect, to impact the livelihood and the well-being of the people
05:15and also trying to impact these installations, these facilities of healthcare.
05:20But now the government has issued not only the resources, it has allocated power plants,
05:25it has allocated power backups, so they can guarantee the service for the pregnant women,
05:32for the children, for the sick one, the elderly, and moreover, the emergency units that cannot
05:37stop the service.
05:38So moreover, that was the information during the day, but now there are other declarations.
05:45The Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, has been saying that he is starting
05:50la centella operation, centella, which is like spark, which is like a light, a bolt
05:56light operation, because it is intended to find the responsible and those accountable
06:02for this attack and bring them on to justice.
06:05Also, the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello
06:11Rondón, he was also saying that it is paramount and necessary to stay calm.
06:15He called the population to stay in tranquility, to move on with their daily lives despite
06:21these difficulties and these circumstances.
06:24And the president of the nation, Nicolás Maduro Moros, he was also saying that people
06:27have to have still nerve.
06:30Still nerve is an expression to say calm over everything, you know, calm to overcome
06:36the difficulties.
06:37Also, I want to say, Ana, that Jorge Arreaza, the first secretary of ALBA-TZP, one of the
06:44movements that joins and comes together and gathers many Latin American countries, one
06:49of the many blocks of integration, is calling for respect for Venezuela and is condemning
06:54this attack, this sabotage, against the power grid here in Venezuela and in Caracas.
07:01Also, I want to stress something.
07:03This is happening just one month after the electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro Moros,
07:08one month after the elections, the presidential elections here in Venezuela, and this sabotage
07:14is also falling in line with one that happened on Tuesday night and also affected northern
07:20parts of the city of Caracas.
07:22So this is not new for Venezuelan people.
07:25This is not a new event for them.
07:28So they have the strategies, they have the reliance on themselves in the government.
07:34And I have to say, this kind of attacks are only echoing, they are only, you know, doing
07:39a resonance with what happened in Venezuela in 2019, when also for five days Venezuelans
07:46were under this kind of power cuts and they experienced also the lack of transportation
07:52and the lack of other resources.
07:53But moreover, they overcame that attack and they are also being resilient to this one
08:00and they are saying that they are going to move on from this, pass from this, because
08:05this is just one more of the many attacks they are receiving in these days in the aftermath
08:11of the July 28th elections.
08:13And let's recall that on July 29th and 30th, there was terrorist attacks on the subway
08:19lines, on the transportation means and also 27 Venezuelans lost their lives.
08:24So moreover, Ana, this information, international governments, organizations are supporting
08:31Venezuela, are condemning this sabotage, this attack on the power national grid.
08:37And the Venezuelan people is just, they are just trying to overcome this and do their
08:41normal lives, because that's the premise here in Venezuela, to be in peace, to be resilient
08:48and to find resources and alternatives for themselves and by themselves to face this
08:54kind of attacks.
08:55Back to you, Ana.
08:56Thank you, Gladys, very much for all your remarks and information during this power
09:01grid that happened in the country.
09:05And now we continue with the news.
09:08The government of Venezuela reported a gradual re-establishment on the national electricity
09:13system after being affected to a sabotage, as our colleague and correspondent Gladys
09:18said.
09:19The Minister of Interior, Diosdado Cabello, informed that the attack on the electric service
09:24was a plan in advance by ultra right-wing groups, for which reasons the government applied
09:30a contingency plan for the restoration of the service.
09:34Let's take a very short break, but we'll be right back, stay with us.
09:52Welcome back to From the South.
09:54In Ecuador, on Thursday, five members of the Coordination of Organizations for the Unity
09:58of the Left managed to reach an agreement aimed at the construction of solutions to
10:03solve the crisis in the South American nation.
10:12For the defense of dignified life, peace, sovereignty, social organizations, political
10:19parties and movements of the center-left and progressive tendency, in the framework of
10:25the meeting of social organizations of the country, we have formed a technical table.
10:31And after several working meetings, we present to the country the following agreement with
10:36a view to programmatic unity and the construction of immediate solutions to the current crisis
10:42that Ecuador is experiencing.
10:45Bolivian judicial authorities confirmed on Thursday that the trial of Furen Sincata massacred
10:51against former de facto President Niñoñez, former ministers, former militaries and police
10:56commanders in 2019 will begin on September 2nd.
11:01The State Prosecutor's Office said that the Fourth Criminal Sentencing Court of the City
11:06of El Alto has set the hearing for the beginning of the oral, public and contradictory trial
11:15for Monday, September 2nd, 2024.
11:27We move on.
11:28The World Health Organization confirmed a humanitarian pause on combats for polio vaccination
11:33for the population in the Gaza Strip.
11:36During a virtual press conference, the agency's representative in Palestine, Riek Pepperkorn,
11:43assured that more than 1 million thousands are already in the Palestinian territory,
11:50while another 400,000 will be shipped soon.
11:53Pepperkorn also noted that the campaign will begin in central Gaza with a three-day lull
11:58in the fighting.
12:00Then move to the south and then to the north with similar periods of cessation of facilities
12:05to support the vaccination.
12:10A two-round polio vaccination campaign will start on the 1st of September in the Gaza
12:18Strip.
12:19During each round of the campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with
12:24WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA and partners, will provide two drops of the novel oral polio vaccine
12:35type 2, the so-called NOPV2, to more than 640,000 children under 10 years of age.
12:42Let's take our last break, but before we invite you to visit our YouTube channel, Atalasur
12:47English, where you'll be able to watch an interview, stop stories, special broadcasts
12:51and more.
12:52Hit the subscribe button and activate the notification bell to stay up-to-date on the
12:55world's most recent events.
12:56One final short break, don't go away.
13:10Welcome back.
13:11On Friday, the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum's leaders meeting, PEACE, held its closing by
13:16endorsing a major joint policy initiative and reaching other regional achievements.
13:22The initiative stems from an Australian fund planned to improve training and create a multinational
13:29crisis reacting force.
13:31Thus, four training centres will be set across the Pacific, in addition to a hub in Brisbane,
13:38Australia.
13:39Another significant breakthrough of the summit, which was attended by the European leaders
13:45about crip bodies, and by China, the U.S. and the EU, was the talk held by Nomea and
13:53Colonialist France concerning the future of New Caledonia, in which member leaders will
13:59have a fine-finding mission next month.
14:08We have had a fruitful dialogue with a number of stakeholders, including the United Nations
14:14Secretary-General, representatives from civil society and private sector, heads of our crop
14:20agencies, associate members, and forum observers, as well as our forum dialogue partners.
14:27This week, I wanted to touch on the Pacific Policing Initiative.
14:33As you would know, Tonga, like many other countries, are facing a number of transnational
14:38security challenges, including seeing an increase in drug trafficking, cybercrime within
14:44the Pacific in recent years.
14:49On our changing topics, in Ecuador, in the outskirts of Quito, a Florida fauna sanctuary
14:54with an epidemic and threatened species confronts environmentalists and mining companies over
15:01illegal loopholes.
15:02In 2023, the refinery banned all new mineral extraction in 124,000 hectares of the Añanchuco,
15:12a rainforest rich in gold and part of the World Biosphere Reserve.
15:16However, the environmentalists and the majority of the inhabitants maintain that nothing has
15:23changed since then in the area covered by the decision taken by the majority of the
15:28capital's electorate as mining continues, and they demand that the national government
15:33and local authorities order the suspension of these activities.
15:44The people were loud and clear.
15:46Seventy percent of the district's population told the authorities that, in the Andes Chaco,
15:51in the Biosphere Reserve, in these territories, we do not want mining and this has to be respected.
15:57They are very fragile ecosystems, taking hummingbirds into account, for example.
16:02Imagine in these species, these very small animals, the implications of an explosion
16:07to break the rock, the opening of a road to be able to bring in large trucks, tractors.
16:12It would be terrible.
16:13It would wipe out all this biodiversity.
16:17We have come to the end of this news brief, but you can find this and many other stories
16:21on our website at eleccionesenglish.es.
16:24You can also join us on our socials, we are on Facebook, On X, and on Instagram as well.
16:30For TELESUR English, I'm from the south, I'm Ana Marrero, thank you for watching.