Electricity rationing expanded across South American nation amid protests

As if daily life in Venezuela wasn't hard enough, people across the crisis-wracked South American country will now have to add electricity to the long list of things they'll have to do without.

President Nicolas Maduro's government on Monday began rationing power in 18 of 24 states. The rolling blackouts of up to four hours a day are a last-minute attempt to save energy until water levels stabilize at the Guri Dam, which provides the bulk of the country's electricity.

Even in Caracas, which is being spared the rolling power cuts, outages have become a frequent fact of life as energy supplies have dwindled. Over the weekend residents in a poor neighborhood of El Calvario, on the city's outskirts, blocked a major thruway with motorcycles and trash to protest what they said had been 29 hours without service.