This Is Life In Venezuela When The Lights Go Out (HBO)

If you’ve ever been inconvenienced by a power outage, imagine living in a complete blackout amid a food shortage, a medicine shortage, and a political power struggle that has pitted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s embattled government against the U.S.-backed opposition party.

That’s what many Venezuelans have been facing every evening since March 7, when a massive blackout plunged most of the country into darkness. And while power has been almost fully restored, according to the country’s communications minister, Venezuelans are still coming to terms with a historic outage that left millions of people in the dark.

Some people went without electricity for more than 96 hours. Schools were closed, hospitals struggled to keep patients alive, and basic necessities like clean water and fresh food became even harder to come by.

“I handed out the food so it wouldn’t go to waste,” Luisa Changir, a 60-year-old Caracas resident, told VICE News on Monday. “Water is pumped with electricity, so we don’t have any now.”

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