President Noboa suspends the work and school day and accuses the outgoing Energy Minister of having hidden the problem. The situation has reached historical records, says Cenace, the electricity operator, and warned that the energy deficit facing the country is up to 27 gigawatts per day.
The government assures that from the preliminary investigation carried out by the new Minister of Energy in charge, Roberto Luque, the crisis is not only related to environmental circumstances due to the lack of rain that has caused the extension of the drought period, but to acts of corruption and negligence by high-level Energy Ministry officials, including former minister Andrea Arrobo. The first time that the president referred to the issue was on April 16 at an event in which he was going to hand out scholarships to students, almost a week after the surprise power outages began. They worsened on Monday when the blackouts spread throughout the country for up to more than six hours. Some towns like Naranjal endured up to 20 hours without electricity, which brought people to the streets to protest.