Ecuador is experiencing electricity cuts of up to 13 hours this Thursday. It occurs on the eve of the holding of a binding referendum on the measures proposed by President Daniel Noboa to try to stop the growing violence linked to drug trafficking.
The outages began on Sunday without warning, but have become longer as the days have passed. Colombia stopped selling energy as a measure to deal with the serious drought associated with the El Nio phenomenon, which has Colombian reservoirs below 30% of their capacity. The Mazar (the most important) and Paute reservoirs, both in the southern Andes, are in "critical conditions" when registering storage levels of 0% and 4%, respectively. The government has requested, without much success, that working days be suspended in the public and private sectors these Thursdays and Fridays, as well as classes, after announcing that the reservoirs are in critical conditions. The reservoirs register alarming storage levels, registering 0% to 4% of capacity, according to the Ecuadorian government.