Maduro and his horrid administration have been able to be the cause behind hyper inflation, starving, an economy that has practically collapsed, little to no jobs, and so on and so forth.I don't think anyone finds it hard to believe that they also mismanaged the utility system and electricity is failing now. Surprise, surprise!
This is a fundamental problem of how "socialists" see the economy. Maduro basically insists economy is a capitalist lie that needs to be destroyed...
But the truth behind is far much simpler: Under Chávez oil prices soared, and they increased expenses. After that the barrel of oil price came down, that more or less coincided with Maduro's taking power, but he refuses to cut expenses, blaming it on an "imperialist attack".
See the problem is a socialist would "look bad" by cutting expenses (ie: "social" programs), only because there is less money now... I can't even begin to fathom how could there be people like that, let alone be given the reigns of power over a nation.
Duh! Less money less spending!
But oh no, "we are going to overcome this by sheer force of will" and overnight all State bank accounts have money from nowhere.., therefore hyperinflation ensued. Unlike classical "money printing" of history, this time they do it electronically. Which means there are no corresponding banknotes (forget coins) printed anymore, every-time they increase the money circulating, its done electronically, reducing drastically the amount of physical currency. At this moment it is estimated that only 3% of the Venezuelan bolivar exists in physical form.
Maduro last year blamed it all to foreigners "taking the banknotes away". But its a simple offer and demand situation, by having so little cash, the value of both (technically the same fiat) differs. And things become more expensive with electronic money than cash but few people has cash anymore. Among these a naive foreigner who would exchange a "small" amount (ie. 100 USD) is actually demanding 350,000 VES. A Venezuelan can only borrow from a bank 6000 per day in cash, often much less. The largest banknote is 500, so that means while a Venezuelan has to somehow survive with 12 banknotes the foreigner is already taking 700.
Note that the foreigner is completely innocent here, you wouldn't think in any country borrowing 100 USD would bankrupt a nation's economy, would you? But that's what hyperinflation does, induced when those incapable of doing basic math are put in power.
See? It is that simple. there is no money to pay wages, let alone do maintenance. For years people warned the electrical grid was in trouble, but they either didn't care, or accuse the people giving the warnings as "agents of imperialism", which is the only thing Maduro so far has spoken to he people, pure politic rhetoric, zero technical details in what is going on and what they plan to fix it.
I could also go on on how corruption makes things cost 100 times more to buy and take 10 times more to execute, if ever. A socialist government is a giant bloated State, with bureaucracy "enforcing" "controls" all over, all of this is corruption breeding. We are living "On a wing and a prayer" as that old aviation saying goes...
PS: Just had another 10 min blackout while writing this post... Had several of those yesterday, some lasting 30 minutes.