By
The Associated Press
More than 4,000 people outraged by the continuing power outages in Puerto Rico demonstrated on Friday to denounce
how the lack of energy is affecting their health, work and the schooling of their children.
The protesters demanded the removal of Luma Energy, a private company that took over the transmission and distribution of energy on the island on June 1.
Some are also unhappy with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which owns and operates generators that have been damaged in recent weeks,
largely due to a lack of maintenance and repair.
Thousands of people march along the Autopista de las Américas to protest against the LUMA Energy company in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Carlos Giusti / AP
“We are tired of coming home and finding out that we have no power,” said Mayra Rivera, 55, adding that she is especially concerned about her parents, who are in their 90s, and the sweltering heat they face at home. .
Thousands of people marched down one of the capital's main highways, San Juan,
blocking traffic as dusk fell.
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Once it got dark, they held their cell phones up, turning the highway into a sea of tiny lights.
The last time this road was blocked was during the big protests in 2019
that led to the resignation of then-governor Ricardo Rosselló.
In protest, the people marched with the lights of their cell phones on in the dark.Carlos Giusti / AP
Some wore T-shirts that read
"go to hell, Luma."
As they clapped or banged on pans, they walked behind huge speakers in pickup trucks blaring slogans like "My power went out, damn it, and now my fridge is going to be ruined."
Among the protesters was Juan Antonio Rivera, 78, who said the latest blackout left him in the dark this week for 43 hours.
The previous ones damaged both his computers.
"And one of them cost $ 200 to fix!" He exclaimed.
"I have the receipts at home to send to Luma."
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Power outages have been more frequent and have lasted longer in recent months.
People have complained that they cannot take respiratory therapy or have had to throw away their insulin or food.
Many also say that it has been difficult for them to work or that cuts have prevented their children from attending classes online, and they
also claim that several expensive devices in their homes have been damaged.
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Cicma Albino, a 56-year-old teacher from Guayama who drove more than an hour to participate in the rally, said the blackouts affected her school for three days.
“We had to send them (the students) home,” said the teacher.
One of the protesters, who worked as a line operator for the Electric Power Authority, put on his work clothes, with helmet and tool belt, and said he was frustrated and furious about the blackouts, as his mother is prostrate in the bed.
"She is going to suffer," said Jesús Ambert.
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Puerto Rico's power grid has become increasingly unstable after Hurricane Maria struck the island in September 2017 as a powerful Category 4 storm.
Efforts to strengthen the grid have yet to begin, and the government announced Thursday the first disbursement of federal funds
to the Electric Power Authority, with $ 7.1 million earmarked for reconstruction work.
The money is part of a total of $ 9.5 billion allocated by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild the network.
People report that blackouts are affecting their daily activities.
Carlos Giusti / AP
The new director of the Electric Power Authority, Josué Colón, said that several projects have been identified for a total of 2.4 billion dollars.
He also noted that the generation units are in "critical condition."
The march came on the same day that Luma announced that it supplied electricity for the first time to a community on the neighboring island of Culebra that had relied exclusively on generators or battery-powered solar panels.
The company was also authorized on Friday to launch eight transmission and distribution reconstruction projects worth $ 117 million.