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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2007 
Calderon Urges Continued Donations
 Dudley Althaus - Houston Chronicle
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| | Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, center left, and Chiapas' Governor Juan Sabines, center right, ride atop of a car waving to people during a visit to the place where the victims of the flood and the landslide of San Juan de Grijalva were housed in Ostuacan, Mexico, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Mexico City — President Felipe Calderon, visiting flood-crippled Tabasco and Chiapas states Friday, called on all Mexicans to continue donating aid for months to come and warned officials not to use it for political purposes.
"As time passes the interest and worry usually diminish," Calderon said of the nationwide public response to the flooding. "This help must continue not only for the coming days, but for the coming weeks and months."
So far, more than 6,000 tons of aid has been collected from various government agencies, citizens, businesses and foreign governments, Calderon said.
Red Cross donation collection points have been flooded with people bringing clothing, food and supplies. Newspaper and government Web sites list bank accounts where money can be deposited.
Calderon vowed to improve the distribution of the aid — which has been spotty and fraught with problems so far — in the coming days.
Flooding from heavy rains last week inundated as much as 70 percent of table-flat Tabasco and caused deadly flash floods and landslides in the mountains of neighboring Chiapas.
The official death toll so far stands at six dead with several dozen others missing. Tens of thousands of people remain in shelters.
Insurance claims in Tabasco alone are expected to reach nearly $700 million, the Mexican Insurance Industry Association said Friday. But the actual damage toll is expected to run far higher because many of the region's poor residents carry no property insurance.
Government and industry officials say that nearly all of Tabasco's agriculture — upon which a third of the state's 2 million people depend — has been destroyed. Tabasco is a major source of beef, seafood and tropical fruit in Mexico.
The Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers, which join in Tabasco before emptying into the lower Gulf of Mexico, constitute Mexico's most important watershed. Rising in the rain forests and mountains of Chiapas, both rivers tumble sharply down to sea level in Tabasco, which is effectively one vast flood plain.
Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, toured Tabasco Friday accompanied by his wife, the heiress to the Corona beer fortune and Latin America's wealthiest woman, as well American Red Cross President Mark Everson.
"The strength of the Mexican people in the face of a disaster of this magnitude is a tribute to the human spirit," Garza said. "While visiting communities struggling under flood waters, or those displaced by the deluge, I was impressed by the way people pulled together to hasten their own recovery from this disaster."
The Bush administration has contributed $420,000 for disaster relief so far, Garza said. Private and corporate U.S. aid has been donated as well. Calderon praised the foreign help, which has included a 54-member medical team from Cuba.
"Together we will rebuild and pull Tabasco forward," Calderon said.
dudley.althaus@chron.com |
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