Colombians blame power company for ruining their sex lives

Don’t mess with people’s sex lives.

A Colombian electricity company learned that lesson the hard way, after residents complained that prolonged power outages had ruined their sex lives.

When a neighborhood in the port city of Santa Marta was forced to go without electricity for 11 days after a transformer blew earlier this month, dozens of residents were left without refrigeration, TV, or air-conditioning in a city where temperatures regularly hit 110 degrees.

But one of people’s main complaints was that it was too hot for sex.

“It gets too hot here. You can’t concentrate. Nobody can do it in these high temperatures,” Santa Marta resident Rigoberto Benjambre, 56, told Caracol Radio, during a protest held Tuesday. “We’ve had 10 days where we can’t be with our partners, and that puts us in a very bad mood.”

That collective sexual frustration was so intense that Benjambre and several other residents filed a written complaint with the municipal human rights office, arguing that power outages had pulled the plug on their sex lives.

“This petition is somewhat unusual, but it’s valid,” said Ombudsman Shadan Rosad. “Though some may see it as a joke, the truth is that 10 days of abstinence does provoke bad temper and alters peaceful coexistence.”

The unusual protest was featured in several national media outlets, and by the end of the day, electricity company Electricaribe finally began to install a new transformer in the neighborhood.

With power restored as of Wednesday, it’s time to let the loving begin.

“You can’t make love while you’re suffocating,” Benjambre told El Heraldo. “Nobody likes to do it sweating and with a mosquito buzzing in your ear.”

Manuel Rueda is a correspondent for Fusion, covering Mexico and South America. He travels from donkey festivals, to salsa clubs to steamy places with cartel activity.