Jul 19, 2026
Everything ChatGPT, banks, and hospitals need to function travels across the seafloor. No one knows. And almost no one protects it.
When you ask ChatGPT something, the answer travels to the bottom of the sea. Because of a cable that if broken, disconnects us completely. Suddenly, you don’t access your bank. You do not access your medical records. You don’t have email, or artificial intelligence to help you. Can you imagine it?
It happened to Venezuela. And we can learn from it.
99% of the internet travels by cable. Not by satellite.
That is the first piece of information that almost no one knows. More than 95% of the world’s international data traffic — and virtually 100% in Latin America — travels over subsea fiber-optic cables. Not by satellites. Not through the air. By cables that run along the ocean floor for thousands of miles.
Those cables are what make a bank transfer between Bogota and New York possible in milliseconds. Those that allow a doctor in Caracas to access a medical record stored in the cloud. Those who sustain the AI platforms that are redefining how we work, decide, and communicate.
Without subsea cables, Latin America has no digital economy. It’s that simple.
Why AI Needs This Cable — And Why It Changes Everything
The boom in artificial intelligence is not just a matter of algorithms. It’s a matter of physical infrastructure. The most advanced AI models — those that process language, image, video in real time — need to transmit massive volumes of data between servers on different continents with minimal latency.
Without high-capacity, low-latency submarine cables, that’s not possible. A country with obsolete or insufficient underwater infrastructure cannot be an artificial intelligence hub. It can’t appeal to hyperscalers — Google, Amazon, Microsoft — who are deciding where to build their next data centers in the region today.
Latin America has a real window of opportunity. The demand for AI is growing. Investment in digital infrastructure is looking for destinations. Countries that act now — that invest in redundancy, that modernize their cables, that simplify regulatory frameworks — will be the digital hubs of the next decade. Those who wait will depend on the decisions made by others.
A lesson not to be wasted
The subsea cable that connects Venezuela with the world had not cut a single cut for 20 years. Not one. Submarine fiber is the most reliable communications service out there — with an uptime of 99.9999%. For that cable to fail, it took a 7.5-magnitude earthquake, the first of that magnitude in Venezuela in almost 100 years.
The lesson is not that the infrastructure was weak. The lesson is that even the world’s most reliable infrastructure needs redundancy. Because improbable events happen. And when they do occur, a country’s resilience depends on the decisions it made years earlier.
The question that Latin America has to ask itself today is not when the next cable will fail. The question is how to build infrastructure so resilient that when it fails — because at some point it will fail — the impact lasts for hours, not weeks.
To better understand this world
The infrastructure that sustains the digital economy has its own vocabulary. In future installments we will explore each of these components in detail:
- Landing station — a country’s gateway to the global internet.
- SPOF — why a single point of failure can shut down an entire country.
- Redundancy — how to build resilient infrastructure.
- Latency — why speed matters more than it seems to AI.
Paul Choiseul
CTIO Chief Technology and Information Officer
Cirion Technologies
About Cirion Technologies
Cirion Technologies is a leading provider of digital infrastructure and technology solutions in Latin America. The company operates one of the region’s most comprehensive digital infrastructure platforms, integrating an extensive terrestrial and subsea fiber-optic network, carrier-neutral interconnection services, cloud connectivity, colocation services, and advanced digital solutions. These capabilities enable enterprises, service providers, and hyperscalers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives across the region.
Press Contact
Marcelo Pineda Arango
Global Head of Marketing, Brand & Communications
marcelo.pineda@ciriontechnologies.com
Jul 17, 2026
The Wave Sentinel has just arrived at the port of Guaranao and begins the customs procedures to begin the definitive repair of the subsea cable.
The specialized vessel Wave Sentinel dropped anchor at 9:30 a.m. in Venezuelan waters and docked in the port of Guaranao. From this moment, the team begins the necessary customs procedures to begin the definitive repair operation.
The end is very close
Twenty-three days after the June 24 earthquake, Venezuela is very close to restoring its international connectivity to 100%. The Wave Sentinel has on board the specialized technical team, the underwater robot and the materials necessary to execute the repair.
Once the customs procedures are completed, the vessel will position itself on the exact point of the cut and deploy the underwater robot to start the operation.
What made it possible to get here
The arrival of the Wave Sentinel tonight is the result of 23 days of uninterrupted work. A regulatory process that normally takes more than 45 days was completed in 14, thanks to the commitment of the Venezuelan government and the accompaniment of CONATEL.
Next update
Cirion Technologies will report as soon as the team completes the inspection of the damage and the repair plan is defined.
Paul Choiseul
CTIO Chief Technology and Information Officer
Cirion Technologies
About Cirion Technologies
Cirion Technologies is a leading provider of digital infrastructure and technology solutions in Latin America. The company operates one of the region’s most comprehensive digital infrastructure platforms, integrating an extensive terrestrial and subsea fiber-optic network, carrier-neutral interconnection services, cloud connectivity, colocation services, and advanced digital solutions. These capabilities enable enterprises, service providers, and hyperscalers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives across the region.
Press Contact
Marcelo Pineda Arango
Global Head of Marketing, Brand & Communications
marcelo.pineda@ciriontechnologies.com
Jul 14, 2026
The specialized vessel has already set sail for Venezuela, after a stop in Curaçao where it will pick up a crew and specialized material for the subsea cable repair. Thus, the definitive repair of the international link that connects Venezuela with the world is imminent.
19 days of uninterrupted response
Since the earthquake of June 24, 2026 — the first magnitude 7.5 in Venezuela in almost 100 years — Cirion Technologies immediately activated its contingency protocols. In less than 48 hours, the Caracas connectivity ring was restored. At the same time, the company activated alternative international routes that have allowed more than 60% of its customers to remain operational.
Today Venezuela’s internal network operates normally. The only link pending restoration is the international one, which depends on the physical repair of the subsea cable cut approximately 1,800 meters off the coast of La Guaira.
An infrastructure designed to withstand
The subsea cable that connects Venezuela with the world had been in operation for 20 years without a single cut. Its historical uptime is 99.9999% — the highest standard in telecommunications. The subsea cable was damaged as a direct result of the earthquakes of June 24.
Prevention that made a difference
Cirion’s immediate response was not improvised. The company is a member of an international cooperative for the repair and maintenance of subsea cables, to which it allocates several million dollars a year to guarantee priority access to a specialized vessel in the event of any incident. That membership was what allowed the vessel to be mobilized in days, not months.
An unprecedented regulatory process
The operation required multiple government authorizations. Under normal conditions, this process takes more than 45 days, however they were obtained in record time thanks to the coordinated work with CONATEL, ministries and Venezuelan authorities.
“We deeply value the support of CONATEL and all the authorities that made it possible to move forward at this speed. What we accomplished together in 14 days would normally take months. That is what will allow Venezuela to be 100% connected again.”
María Claudia Rey Castillo— President of the North Cluster, Cirion Technologies.
How to repair a subsea cable
Once positioned on the cutting point, the vessel deploys an underwater robot that descends to the seabed, locates the cable and makes a clean cut. The two ends are marked with buoys. The team raises the marine end to the surface, energizes it from the vessel, and checks with an optical measuring instrument that there are no additional cuts — accurate to centimeters.
Once confirmed, it goes up the coastal end and executes the fusion: a micronically aligned laser joins both fiber ends — each a fraction of the thickness of a human hair. Waterproof pressure protectors are placed over the joint. The cable returns to the bottom. Electricity is injected from the ground. Connectivity is restored.
About Cirion Technologies
Cirion Technologies is a leading provider of digital infrastructure and technology solutions in Latin America. The company operates one of the region’s most comprehensive digital infrastructure platforms, integrating an extensive terrestrial and subsea fiber-optic network, carrier-neutral interconnection services, cloud connectivity, colocation services, and advanced digital solutions. These capabilities enable enterprises, service providers, and hyperscalers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives across the region.
Press Contact
Marcelo Pineda Arango
Global Head of Marketing, Brand & Communications
marcelo.pineda@ciriontechnologies.com
Jul 8, 2026
Dear Customer,
We want to share with you how we are moving towards the definitive repair of the submarine cable to recover our international connectivity in Venezuela.
Status of the situation
The specialized vessel assigned to this operation is currently completing work in Guadeloupe. According to the current schedule, it is expected to arrive in Curaçao between July 11 and 12 to carry out refueling and provisioning activities as part of its logistical preparation. Subsequently, once the authorizations required by the Venezuelan authorities for this type of operation have been completed, the vessel could enter Venezuelan waters between July 16 and 17 to move forward with the next phase of the submarine cable repair process.
Since the beginning of this contingency, Cirion has worked in coordination with CONATEL – which has launched an exceptional plan for regulatory speed – and the competent authorities to accelerate the necessary steps to begin the definitive repair of the subsea cable. We value the joint work that has been developed during these days to advance in an extraordinary process, derived from an unprecedented situation for the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.
We know that this situation represents a real challenge to your operations. The capacity enabled so far mitigates the impact, but it is still not enough to restore all of our customers.
We have done and continue to do everything in our power to restore all services in the shortest possible time.
You are our priority. We will inform you transparently on every relevant development. We will do everything in our power to restore all services in the shortest possible time.
Thank you for your trust and support.
Marcelo Pineda Arango
Global Head of Marketing, Brand & Communications
Cirion Technologies
About Cirion Technologies
Cirion Technologies is a leading provider of digital infrastructure and technology solutions in Latin America. The company operates one of the region’s most comprehensive digital infrastructure platforms, integrating an extensive terrestrial and subsea fiber-optic network, carrier-neutral interconnection services, cloud connectivity, colocation services, and advanced digital solutions. These capabilities enable enterprises, service providers, and hyperscalers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives across the region.
Jul 3, 2026
Where We Stand Today
Sixty-two percent of Cirion Technologies’ customers in Venezuela have already had their services restored following the subsea cable break in Venezuelan waters. Efforts to progressively restore the remaining capacity are ongoing.
Cirion’s critical infrastructure, including the landing station, data center, and Caracas metropolitan ring, continues to operate normally.
We also remain actively engaged with Venezuelan authorities to secure the necessary permits that will allow the specialized repair vessel to enter the country and carry out subsea cable repair operations in the coming days.
What We Have Achieved Since the Last Update
Since our previous update on July 1, we have doubled the available network capacity through alternative routes and coordinated efforts with our international partners. This has enabled us to accelerate service restoration and expand connectivity to a larger number of customers.
Our technical teams continue to add capacity beyond what has already been restored and are closely monitoring network performance to further accelerate service recovery efforts.
What Comes Next
Once the required permits are granted, the repair vessel will begin operations in Venezuelan waters, enabling the next phase toward the full restoration of international connectivity.
Cirion will continue to provide timely updates on the progress of these efforts as each stage is confirmed.
Paul Choiseul
CTIO Chief Technology & Information Officer
Cirion Technologies
About Cirion Technologies
Cirion Technologies is a leading provider of digital infrastructure and technology solutions in Latin America. The company operates one of the region’s most comprehensive digital infrastructure platforms, integrating an extensive terrestrial and submarine fiber-optic network, carrier-neutral interconnection services, cloud connectivity, colocation services, and advanced digital solutions. These capabilities enable enterprises, service providers, and hyperscalers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives across the region.
Press Contact
Marcelo Pineda
Global Head of Marketing
marcelo.pineda@ciriontechnologies.com
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