Latin America between power outages and internet blockages
Originally published on Global Voices
Screenshot of a browser error message when unable to access the internet. Fair use.
In 2024, Latin America faced internet blockages, power outages, and disruptions linked to politics, climate change, and access to energy.
Countries such as Ecuador and Cuba suffered prolonged blackouts that severely affected connectivity, while, in Brazil, floods interrupted internet traffic in the south and judicial measures limited access to X (formerly Twitter). Elections and presidential inaugurations aggravated website blocking in Venezuela and El Salvador.
Social organizations denounced blocks ordered outside of legal processes and without complying with principles of necessity and proportionality, as in Colombia and other countries in the region.
On April 16, 2024, Ecuador faced internet service interruptions in several of its provinces due to power outages, as reported by internet providers. These indicated that the outages were the result of prolonged and recurring electricity rationing, which lasted more than eight hours a day, a situation that stabilized in May.
In mid-September, there were new power outages of up to 14 hours a day, which had an impact on connectivity and telecommunications services. In October, Ecuador's Minister of Energy and Mines Inés Manzano described the situation as a serious and unprecedented energy crisis.
As shown in this case, an energy crisis can affect the electricity supply that is necessary for the operation and functioning of telecommunication infrastructures, thus limiting access to information and the ability to communicate by these means.
At the beginning of June 2024, the website and social network reddit.com was included on the list of websites related to illegal betting in Colombia by the authority of gaming and betting (Coljuegos). Reddit was not accessible by at least two internet providers (six days in Claro and four days in Tigo), according to the Internet Blocks Observatory. The Open Observatory of Network Interference also confirmed the block.
The Colombian organization Fundación Karisma, which is dedicated to the defense and promotion of human rights, considers that the criteria and legal requirements for this type of block are not defined Colombia, which would result in arbitrary and disproportionate restrictions.
On July 28, 2024, Venezuela held presidential elections. According to the results announced by the electoral authorities, Nicolás Maduro, the incumbent president, obtained 51.2 percent of the votes, while the opposition coalition, headed by María Corina Machado and her candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained 44 percent. However, there were numerous allegations of fraud, including vote manipulation, voter intimidation, and the arrest of opposition figures.
In August, Ve Sin Filtro, of the organization Venezuela Inteligente, recorded 12 new cases of blockings of media websites, human rights organizations, and one VPN service. This makes a total of 61 media outlets blocked on Venezuela's main internet providers.
Also, on August 1, the Internet Outage Detection & Analysis project at Georgia Tech (IODA) recorded a 1 hour and 50 minute disruption at internet providers CANTV and Movilnet. The root cause is unknown, according to Ve sin Filtro.
We're seeing a five-hour dip in traffic to #Cuba coinciding with reports of a disruption in mobile service following protests in Santiago de Cuba earlier today.
Dip in traffic begins at 19:20 UTC (3:20pm ET) and lasted until 00:30 UTC (8:30pm ET). pic.twitter.com/hXAlmwswm3
— Doug Madory (also on Bluesky) (@DougMadory) March 18, 2024
The first power blackout occurred in October and lasted more than 70 hours, affecting internet connectivity. It was caused by a failure in the electrical system. The second outage occurred on November 6, due to Hurricane Rafael. Authorities explained that they had to cut off the electricity supply as a contingency measure. The third one was on December 4, and Cuba's Electric Union, which belongs to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, reported a disconnection of the Cuban electric system.
