Massive blackout hits Colombia after rebel attacks

March 21, 2000
Web posted at: 7:22 p.m. EST (0022 GMT)

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BOGOTA, Colombia -- Officials said normal power supplies would be restored well before the start of the workday Wednesday in Bogota, after a sabotage campaign by Marxist rebels left a large section of central and northeast Colombia without electricity.

Power was lost in Bogota and at least six other cities following the bombings of 11 high-voltage power pylons and an electricity substation over the weekend and Monday, a public holiday.

Colombian officials blamed the National Liberation Army, or ELN -- the smaller of two leftist insurgencies in the country -- for the attacks. The rebels oppose the planned sell-off of state-owned national grid ISA and state-run power generator ISAGEN, and were able to take the country's three largest hydroelectric dams off the nation's power grid.

"Terrorist groups think this is how they're going to obtain peace, but all they are obtaining is the repudiation of Colombians who want to work and move the country forward," Finance Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo told Caracol radio.

The government has said it will not drop its plans to sell off ISA, scheduled for the second half of the year, or ISAGEN, set for the second quarter of this year.

The utility privatizations, expected to raise at least $1 billion, have been ordered by the International Monetary Fund as part of a $2.7 billion loan deal made with Colombia last year.

An ISA official verified that the blackouts appeared to be the work of rebels.

"... This blackout is the result of successive attacks on (power) lines and that is producing power cuts in various parts of the country," ISA president Javier Gutierrez told reporters.

Rebels have stepped up attacks on power installations this year in an apparent effort to gain concessions from President Andres Pastrana in peace talks expected to start soon.

The ELN has bombed about 300 pylons across the country over the last year, and at least half are still out of action.

Bogota streets were in chaos Tuesday when traffic lights malfunctioned. Some office workers were trapped in elevators, and some water supplies were affected.

Most larger businesses and government offices, however, have emergency, gasoline-powered generators.

Brokers on the Bogota stock exchange said the electronic trading system functioned only intermittently, leading to turnover of U.S. $400,000, well below the U.S. $1 million daily average.

About 73 percent of Colombia's total generating capacity of 11,600 megawatts comes from hydroelectric power.

An ISA statement said ELN rebels downed five electricity pylons in northwest Antioquia province, and six others elsewhere, isolating the San Carlos dam, with a generating capacity of 1,250 megawatts, from the grid.

The dams at Guavio and Chivor, with a combined maximum capacity of around 1,800 megawatts, increased output to meet peak demand Tuesday morning as Colombians returned to work after a three-day holiday weekend. But the Colombian Association of Power said the surge caused an overload that shut down the section of the grid that connects Guavio and Chivor.

The blackout marked the first time that residents of the Colombian capital felt the effects of the sabotage campaign that last month left the country's second-largest city, Medellin, in the dark and forced power rationing for millions.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Presidencia de la Republica (Spanish/English)
CIA World Factbook - Colombia
Colombian Embassy in Washington
Armada Nacional (Spanish)

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