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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2005 
Banks Make Up to US3 Billion Available
 Wire services
| | A Cancun resident sits beside the wrecked sea wall and deserted beach of the Mexican Caribbean resort. |
Mexican and multilateral development banks have close to US3 billion available for loans to repair damage from this month's hurricanes, officials said Monday.
Luis Pazos, director of the public works bank Banobras, said municipalities and states hit by Hurricanes Stan and Wilma are eligible to borrow close to US2 billion from Banobras for public works.
The World Bank and the InterAmerican Development Bank plan to loan US500 million for repairs to help the nation's tourism industry.
And the government development bank Nacional Financiera said it has just over US300 million available for credit guarantees and other support to help small businesses get back on their feet in the hurricane hit areas So far, the federal government has disbursed US400 million in hurricane relief, of which US330 million went to states affected by Stan, said Guillermo Bernal, head of budget control at the Finance Ministry.
Much of the initial relief spending has been on emergency supplies such as drinking water, medicines and temporary roofing.
When Hurricanes Stan and Wilma hit south and southeastern Mexico earlier this month, they caused damage to more than 500 municipalities in seven states that depend largely on tourism and agriculture for their livelihoods.
The states account for more than 15 percent of Mexico's US700 billion gross domestic product, although two of the states derive much of their income from manufacturing and oil, sectors which were largely unaffected by the storms.
Mexican insurers estimate that Wilma, which swept through the Yucatan Peninsula in midOctober, will be the country's most expensive natural disaster ever because it hit heavily insured tourism draws in and around Cancun.
While insured losses are expected to be lower in the southern coffee belt, the devastation is still immense. In Chiapas, the country's poorest state, many isolated communities were cut off from the rest of the country when flood waters from Stan destroyed roads and bridges.
Fox to Present Stan Plan
El Universal
President Vicente Fox will announce a financial aid plan Tuesday for Hurricane Stan-ravaged Chiapas, and the plan will be similar to the support the president offered to the state of Quintana Roo after Hurricane Wilma, his spokesman said Monday Fox's program for Chiapas will include reactivating agricultural production as well as rebuilding more than 50,000 residences that were destroyed by Stan.
The reconstruction measures will be announced by Fox in a tour of the affected areas and are part of a larger strategy to revitalize regions affected by natural disasters, his office said.
While making the announcement, presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar rejected the idea that the federal government prioritizes storm victims in categories of "first and second." He was speaking in response to criticisms that tourist zones have received the fastest assistance.
Aguilar said that all of the states affected by recent hurricanes have received the same amount of support. |
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