Another blackout, courtesy of the state monopoly

While thousands of Uruguayans suffered the interruption of the electrical supply on the afternoon of Thursday, May 15, from the air-conditioned offices of UTE, the same complacent statements as always were rehearsed. The official explanation: a "failure"—a textbook euphemism—in an underground cable "absolutely reliable" (words of the operations manager himself, Luis García), which left about 150,000 customers in Montevideo without power.

The entity's discourse, as usual, oscillates between technical self-complacency and bureaucratic denial. How can the "absolutely reliable" fail? How can a "totally redundant" system leave half of Montevideo without service for almost an hour? The answer is simple, although politically uncomfortable: it is a state monopoly, ossified, with no real incentives to improve or be accountable to the citizens, whom it keeps captive as forced customers.

See also: the cost of monopolies and tailored bailouts

UTE acts as if it provides a free service out of institutional kindness, when in reality it charges some of the highest rates in the region, manages resources without real competition, and hides behind the myth of its efficiency, while the entire country goes dark—literally—due to its ineptitude.

This episode is not an exception, but another symptom of what happens when the State clings to the exclusive provision of services that could—and should—be opened to the market, to competition, to innovation, and to effective citizen control. It's not about privatizing for ideology, but about breaking the structural comfort of those who operate without competition or consequences.

Also in crisis: security, another victim of untouchable structures

While in other countries there is a discussion on how to advance toward smart grids, distributed energies, and resilient systems, Uruguay continues to blindly trust a monopoly that celebrates "normality" as if it were an achievement, when it is merely a return to the usual mediocrity.

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How long are we going to tolerate that electricity—a basic input in modern life—depends on good luck? How long are we going to resign ourselves to a state company speaking to us with technical condescension every time it leaves us in the dark?

And if the problem isn't the cable, could it be the entire system?

Maybe the problem isn't the cable. Maybe the real defect is in that untouchable system that some continue to defend as if it were a temple.