bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Chilean authorities said they restored power to most homes on Wednesday, hours after a massive, rare blackout caused transport chaos in the capital and forced the president to declare a state of emergency and curfew across much of the country.
Chile on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and curfew across much of the country, including the capital Santiago, following a massive, rare blackout that left millions without power.
The worst blackout in the country in well over a decade caused transport chaos in the capital Santiago, where thousands of people were evacuated from the metro and people jostled to board overflowing buses.
President Gabriel Boric blamed private companies that manage the grid for the system’s failure.
“This is outrageous! The daily life of millions of Chileans can’t be impacted like this by companies that don’t do their job,” Boric said in a statement issued by his office.
Early Wednesday, “90 per cent of (electricity) consumption was restored” to homes, the power system’s operator said in a statement.
According to the Senapred disaster response agency, the outage affected an area stretching all the way from Arica in the long, narrow South American country’s north to Los Lagos in the south – an area home to more than 90 per cent of Chile’s 20 million people.
In an address to the nation on Tuesday evening, Boric said he was activating “a state of emergency due to a catastrophe” to guarantee national security. He announced a curfew from 10pm Tuesday until 6am on Wednesday.

Speaking earlier in the day, Interior Minister Carolina Toha ruled out sabotage as the reason for the power loss, which began at 3.16pm in the middle of the southern hemisphere summer.
“There is no reason to assume that this is an attack,” she said, telling reporters it was more likely “a failure in the system’s operation” and that the grid should be back up and running “in the coming hours”.
The metro company, which transports 2.3 million passengers every day, said workers were deployed to all stations “to support safe evacuations”.
Out-of-service traffic lights caused major gridlock, with some people having to walk for hours under a hot sun to reach their homes.
Shops and offices closed early.
“They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full,” Santiago worker Maria Angelica Roman, 45, said.

“At the bank where I work, all operations had to stop,” 25-year-old clerk Jonathan Macalupu said.
The Chilevision broadcaster showed video of people trapped on a mechanical ride several metres high at an amusement park in Santiago before being rescued.
An Agence France-Presse photographer saw firefighters rescue a distraught elderly woman, who had been trapped inside a lift.
The country’s hospital system and prisons were operating on emergency generators.
Boric overflew the capital by helicopter to assess the situation.
In the coastal city of Valparaiso, witnesses also reported shops and businesses closing early and traffic chaos.
Unlike Cuba, which has suffered several nationwide power outages in the past six months, Chile boasts one of the best power networks in South America and has not had a blackout this big in about 15 years.
In 2010, damage to a power plant in southern Chile plunged hundreds of thousands of people into darkness for several hours.
That outage happened a month after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 500 people and rocked the national power grid.


Peru declares emergency in capital after murder of singer spurs action on extortion crimes

A look at some of the worst fires at nightclubs and music venues

Peru fisherman, who survives 95 days at sea eating roaches, birds, turtles, returns home

Peruvian farmer’s climate fight reaches German court

Americas and the Caribbean

Power restored to most homes after Chile’s massive blackout hits millions

A parking garage in Santiago, Chile, during the power outage. Photo: AP

Cars zip past dark buildings in Santiago. Photo: AP

An elderly person being rescued from a lift. Photo: AFP

Chinese woman in Panama camp says ‘guarded like prisoners’ after US deportation

Members of Panama’s National Aeronaval Service police stand outside the hotel in Panama City, Panama on February 18, where migrants are housed after being deported to Panama as part of an agreement with the US. Photo: Reuters

Migrants deported from the US place papers with a written message in the window of the Decapolis Hotel where they are temporarily staying in Panama City on February 18, 2024. Photo: AFP

Why is endangered axolotl Mexico’s most beloved amphibian?

The axolotl’s skin is usually dark to mimic stones – though an albino, pinkish variety can be bred – and they can stay still for hours. Photo: AP

Xochimilco is a neighbourhood on Mexico City’s outskirts famed for its canals. Photo: Xinhua

Axolotls scurry around before their release into the canals of Xochimilco. Photo: AP

A figure of an axolotl sits on display at a museum in Xochimilco Ecological Park in Mexico City. Photo: AP

An axolotl swims around in an aquarium at a museum in Xochimilco Ecological Park. Photo: AP

Brazil’s Bolsonaro charged in alleged coup plot that included plan to poison Lula

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been charged in connection with plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 election loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Photo: AFP

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro at the National Congress building in Brasilia on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Photo: Reuters

Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters storming government buildings in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. File photo: AP

Argentina’s Milei denies promoting cryptocurrency that crashed

Argentina’s President Javier Milei leaves the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires on Monday. Photo: AFP

Argentina’s President Javier Milei during US President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Americas

Chile’s worst blackout in years plunged much of the country into darkness, prompting a night curfew


Chile’s worst blackout in years plunged much of the country into darkness, prompting a night curfew.


Energy