(EL PAIS) – Ecuador was in the dark for over three hours on Wednesday due to a massive blackout that affected the entire country. “There is a failure in the transmission line that caused a cascade disconnection, so there is no energy service on a national scale,” Roberto Luque, Minister of Energy, reported on the social media platform X. The power outage caused chaos in the streets of the main cities, Quito and Guayaquil.
The blackout took place amid an energy crisis that the country has been experiencing since 2023 and which has deepened in recent days after heavy rains were recorded in the mountains and in the Amazon region. The storms affected the Coca Codo Sinclair and Agoyán hydroelectric plants, which provide more than 50% of the country’s electricity.
The hydroelectric turbines had to be turned off over the weekend due to the sediment that the rains washed away and which damaged the facilities. However, Minister Luque later acknowledged that the outages were avoidable. “It could have been avoided, yes sir, it could have been avoided,” he said before placing the blame on previous administrations.
