The Argentine government presented this Thursday, March 16, a criminal complaint against an electricity concessionaire of the Italian Enel, as a result of massive power outages in Buenos Aires and its periphery that triggered street protests in the midst of the worst heat wave in more than a century
The Argentine government presented this Thursday, March 16, a criminal complaint against an electricity concessionaire of the Italian Enel, as a result of massive power outages in Buenos Aires and its periphery that triggered street protests in the midst of the worst heat wave in more than a century.
“The report of the electricity regulatory body (Enre) is advancing with all the points that may be causal for the concession to be removed from the company,” said the presidential spokesperson, Gabriela Cerruti at a press conference.
The Argentine official pointed out that the analysis will be carried out “with due care, due to the way in which privatizations were carried out at the end of the 1990s, with a concession for almost 100 years (64 years to go). That no harm be generated to the State before international organizations.
Until noon on Thursday, more than 37,000 homes in Argentina were still without electricity, although on Wednesday afternoon they reached 113,000, an average that had been repeated almost daily for two weeks.
The criminal complaint of the government of Alberto Fernandez in Argentina, it will reach the entire board of directors of the Edesur company (2.5 million customers), under charges of “fraud, abandonment of people and hindering public services,” the head of the regulatory body for energy (Enre), Walter Martello.
Edesur’s main shareholder is the Italian energy giant ENEL, which became the new concessionaire in 2008, following the withdrawal of a Spanish firm. More than 14 million people live in the capital and its surrounding districts, integrated into a Metropolitan Area.
“We have not been notified yet. When we are, we will issue a statement,” a spokesperson for ENEL-Argentina’s Communications Department told AFP.
Angry neighbors have been blocking streets and avenues, demonstrating with posters against the company and even on Wednesday kicking the doors of an Edesur office in the capital.
The heatwave hits the center of the country with 15 consecutive days of temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius, the worst in more than 117 years, according to the National Meteorological System.
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