In Latin American elections, big debates about the left-right ideological divide and the geopolitics of U.S. and Chinese influence often take a back seat to simple concerns about day-to-day living, such as whether the light goes on when you hit the switch. Ecuador has faced power shortages for months, and Chile, Honduras and Argentina have all experienced major blackouts in the past two weeks alone. The wave of outages can be traced to a complex mix of climate risks, infrastructure neglect and policy failures. But these are all converging at a politically sensitive moment because, coincidentally, Ecuador, Chile, Honduras and Argentina all have big elections scheduled this year.
Ecuador’s power cutoffs became a regular occurrence late last year, with Ecuadorians at one point enduring up to 14 hours of blackouts daily. The root cause was climate-related, as the worst drought in 61 years reduced water levels in hydroelectric reservoirs that provide over 70 percent of the country’s electricity. However, the problems also pointed to previous governments’ failure to invest in infrastructure, which in turn highlighted the country’s experience with corruption-riddled Chinese megaprojects. The nightly blackouts reduced economic growth and contributed to security fears driven by the rising gang warfare in the country. President Daniel Noboa recently declared that the crisis was officially over, as rains have now refilled the reservoirs. However, the months of blackouts, curfews and reduced business hours linger over the upcoming second-round presidential election in April, in which Noboa faces a tight runoff against Luisa Gonzalez.
On Feb. 25, Chile suffered its worst blackout in 15 years. Most of the country and over 90 percent of the population lost power when a major northern transmission line failed, triggering a cascade through the interconnected grid. That meant that Santiago, a city of over 8 million people 600 miles to the south of the initial failure, went totally dark. President Gabriel Boric declared a curfew for security reasons, while Interior Minister Carolina Toha—who unrelatedly resigned just days after the power outage to run in the country’s presidential election this fall—took over crisis management. The incident revealed serious gaps in Chile’s electrical redundancy and raised questions about how regulators have overseen the private companies managing transmission lines.