EL CONSEJO, VENEZUELA — Power outages are hitting Henrique Vollmer's rum distillery several times a week, interrupting production, damaging equipment and jeopardizing the jobs of his 375 workers.
President Hugo Chavez blames the inadequate power production by Venezuela's hydroelectric plants on low rainfall. But Vollmer says the problem has deeper roots.
"The blackouts have gotten more frequent over the last couple of years," said Vollmer, whose family-owned Santa Teresa distillery 50 miles southwest of Caracas, the capital, is the nation's second-largest rum producer. "It's not just us -- glass, paper and oil companies are suffering too."
Power outages in this sugar-growing region now last from a few minutes to four hours and are just one symptom of deteriorating conditions in an oil-rich but politically unsettled country. Others are regular cutoffs of running water, even in Caracas hospitals. So are double-digit inflation, rising crime and a sinking economy.
And the government's failure to pay its employees -- be they healthcare workers in San Cristobal in the west or professors in Caracas -- has become another rallying point for unrest, with numerous groups taking their complaints to the streets this week.
Several crises have appeared to converge recently in Venezuela, highlighting the effect of declining oil revenue and what Chavez's critics say is a failure to invest adequately in public works since he took office in 1999.
Chavez, on the other hand, blames Mother Nature, the news media and excessive consumption by upper classes for the nation's growing problems.
Owing partly to the decline in public services, the public's confidence in Chavez is flagging, according to a new public opinion survey released this week by pollster Alfredo Keller. Only 35% of those polled said they would vote for Chavez-aligned candidates in September's legislative elections, compared with 46% saying they favor opposition candidates.
The number of respondents pointing to public services as the biggest problems they face grew to 19% this month from 5% in August, Keller said.
On a more ominous note, two-thirds of 1,200 poll respondents believe that a popular uprising against Chavez is a possibility in this deeply polarized nation, Keller said.
"The public thinks the government isn't doing its job," Keller said, adding that rampant crime is the biggest public preoccupation. Caracas police reported 40 slayings over a 36-hour period last weekend.
