Venezuelans Blockade Streets, Burn Tires After Oil Spill

“We have not had water for a week,” said Maria Rodriguez, an angry 26-year-old house­wife who joined the protest in the city of Maturin. “We don’t have water to cook and bathe, and we don’t have the mon­ey need­ed to buy bot­tled water every­day.”

Crude oil began spilling from a rup­tured pipeline on Feb. 4 near Maturin.

Mon­a­gas state Gov. Jose Gre­go­rio Briceno declared a “state of emer­gency” fol­low­ing the spill, halt­ing water dis­tri­b­u­tion and clos­ing schools in the state’s cap­i­tal of Maturin, which is locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 255 miles (410 kilo­me­ters) north­east of Cara­cas

City may­or Jose Vicente Maicavares said approx­i­mate­ly 2,000 peo­ple, includ­ing PDVSA employ­ees, try­ing to con­tain the spill that has fouled the Guara­piche Riv­er.

Maicavares called for calm, say­ing offi­cials were doing every­thing pos­si­ble to resolve the prob­lem.

“We under­stand the irri­ta­tion,” Maicavares told a news con­fer­ence on Wednes­day. “We can only be patient.”

None of the pro­test­ers have been arrest­ed, he said.

Ramiro Ramirez, envi­ron­men­tal direc­tor of state oil com­pa­ny, told the state-run Venezue­lan News Agency last week that work­ers have been using absorbent bar­ri­ers to block the crude in the riv­er.

They have also shut off water intakes along the riv­er, where a drink­ing water purifi­ca­tion plant is locat­ed, Ramirez said.

State oil com­pa­ny offi­cials said a pipe that trans­ports crude to a pro­cess­ing plant rup­tured.

Ramirez said offi­cials were inves­ti­gat­ing what caused the acci­dent.