Chile’s government imposed a curfew on Tuesday in response to a widespread blackout that left eight million households without electricity. The massive outage, which began in the afternoon, affected 600 miles of the country and caused chaos in cities like Santiago.
President Gabriel Boric blamed power companies for not acting faster to restore power. By midnight, 90% of residential consumers had their power back on, but officials promised that everyone would be restored by dawn.
The outage also knocked out traffic lights, stranded people in elevators, and shut down the subway network. Nonfunctioning stoplights caused traffic chaos in Santiago, leading to mass evacuations from the subway and crowded streets.
Soldiers were deployed to enforce the curfew, while national police directed traffic and patrolled the streets. The situation remains unstable, with officials warning of a slow recovery.
The power outage has highlighted Chile’s deep-seated inequality issues. Mr. Boric has sought to address these disparities through his policies, which have been rejected by voters in previous referendums. Despite this, he continues to call for better basic services for the majority of Chileans.
In a statement, President Boric described the day as “difficult” for millions of countrymen. He warned that the recovery would be slow and unstable, adding that it was “outrageous” that the power companies failed to act faster to restore power.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/world/americas/chile-power-outage.html