The socialist Chavez asked for the resignation of Electricity Minister Angel Rodriguez over the badly planned roll-out of the cuts left people stuck in elevators and schools without power.
“To rectify is the way of the wise. I don’t want to affect anybody, I have ordered the suspension” of the cuts indefinitely, Chavez said in a late night call to a talk show on state television on Wednes-day. Chavez said some people had suffered two cuts in one day on Wednesday, instead of the rolling four-hour cut that had been planned to hit each neighbourhood once every two days. The cuts caused anger across the city and scared many Chavez supporters in poor neighbourhoods where violent crime is rampant. The president faces a parliamentary election in September where the opposition hopes to wrest away his huge majority.
The rationing, which has also been applied to water, is intended to sharply reduce power consumption as the OPEC nation suffers a severe drought caused by the EL Nino weather anomaly.
Water levels at the giant El Guri dam in the south of the country are at dangerously low levels, officials say, and the country risks a catastrophic loss of power if they keep falling.
Other parts of the country, including oil city Maracaibo, will so far still be subject to the rationing.
As the blackouts hit Caracas on Wednesday, some Venezuelans shouted, “Long live Chavez,” with evident irony. “Welcome to Cuba!” others shouted in reference to the communist island known for outages and which is a close ally and inspiration for the socialist Chavez.
The cuts, which trapped some people in elevators, have also forced the baseball league to reschedule games, disrupting an activity only matched as a national pastime by shopping.
That too is hit, with most malls being ordered to open later in the morning. Government workers are among the few to benefit from the rationing, with public offices opening only between 8 am and 1 pm for the next few months.
“President Hugo Chavez’s popularity is likely to be hit severely as a result of the combined impact of power shortages and devaluation-fueled inflation on the population at large,” Patrick Esteruelas of analysts Eurasia Group said in a report.
