On Sunday, Uruguay, Argentina, and portions of Brazil went dark or the lights went out, leaving millions of people in shock.
I learned about it when several friends on Facebook reported it and said “hasta luego” or the Spanish for “see you later”. My friends were running on batteries!
A huge power failure cut off electricity in all of Argentina and Uruguay on Sunday morning, according to media reports and a regional utility.
Parts of Brazil and Paraguay also were affected, the BBC reported.
A “massive failure in the electrical interconnection system” has left “all of Argentina and Uruguay without power,”
Edesur Argentina, a power company serving more than 2.5 million customers, said on Twitter.
So what went wrong?
On the humorous side, my friend from Uruguay said that the “Gods of futbol” did not want fans to catch the game against Ecuador. (Uruguay beat Ecuador, 4-0).
The “Copa America” is underway and “futbol” is all that matters down south.
At another level, there is talk of a “cyber attack,” exactly the kind of explanation that will drive “conspiracy crazies” in Argentina totally mad. I can hear it: Evita did it from the grave! It won’t be long before a tango about the power outage goes up the charts. “Argentinos” love tragedy songs and this one fits the bill.
On a political level, it highlights just how backward some of these “government run” enterprises are. It may be a blessing in disguise if it encourages private investment in some of these state companies!
According to what I hear, it will take a few weeks before we know what happened. In the meantime, get ready for lots of conspiracies and tangos reliving that Sunday that Buenos Aires went dark.
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