Venezuela Goes Grid-Down and Belly-Up

The lights are out in most of Venezuela. And America’s last remaining diplomats will be out of there shortly, too. A desperate and unsustainable situation is becoming a full-fledged catastrophe.

Nicholas Maduro, the communist dictator still illegitimately clinging to power, is blaming the lack of it across his country on cyberwarfare by the United States.

A more likely explanation is his regime’s endemic neglect of the Venezuelan infrastructure, now compounded by efforts to restore power that have resulted in the distribution of unbalanced loads that are causing the destruction of effectively irreplaceable equipment.

Our returning diplomats will attest to the resulting collapse of Venezuela’s society. Presumably, they will also make clear the humanitarian imperative of a U.S.-backed regional intervention to prevent a hemispheric refugee crisis.

Another take-away: We must protect our own, vulnerable grid lest we face a similar, existential threat here.

Frank Gaffney, Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a columnist for The Washington Times, and host of the nationally syndicated program, Secure Freedom Radio. Read more reports from Frank Gaffney, Jr. — Click Here Now.