IN FOCUS III: Disaster in Southern Chiapas

In the first week of September, six days of incessant rains rendered southern Chiapas, primarily the coast and Fraylesca regions, a disaster area. The resulting flooding and landslides destroyed roads, houses and entire communities. In a confidential document dated September 15, the government estimated 400 dead, 850 disappeared, and more than 100,000 others homeless as a result of the storms. The same document reported that 44 counties and 616 communities were affected, 350 of the latter still incommunicado after 10 days.

Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work in the region believe that the casualties are higher than official estimates, with thousands of disappeared and as many as 1,200,000 flood victims. Dr. Salvador Perez Lopez of Huixtla, who works in the disaster area, told SIPAZ, “The government is manipulating the statistics. On October 9 it stated that there were 290 dead, but it is a lie. There must be more than 1000.”

The affected area covers more than 20,000 square kilometers, with almost 1000 kilometers of highway impassable and dozens of bridges destroyed. The region is located outside of the so-called conflict region, although it includes part of the Zapatista autonomous county of Tierra y Libertad.

Heavy rains at the end of September destroyed parts of the infrastructure that had been temporarily repaired. Lopez Perez observes, “In some places they had to repair the bridges three or four times.” According to the authorities, the rebuilding process will last until the middle of summer next year.

More than 8000 soldiers were mobilized to rescue persons trapped by the raging waters, install temporary shelters, deliver groceries and medicines to survivors, and do temporary repairs to damaged infrastructure. Civil society mobilized of its own accord and provided generous amounts of aid to the victims. However, five weeks after the end of the rains, dozens of communities were still incommunicado and had not received any assistance. Speaking on October 10, Dr. Lopez Perez said, “Just in the county of Motozintla there are still 20-30 communities totally cut off. The people have to walk between four and eight hours to obtain food. In spite of that, the government assistance being delivered by air is now in its terminal phase and the army is withdrawing.”

According to a September 15 communiqué from EZLN Sub-commander Marcos, the EZLN was directing “part of its war fund to contribute something to alleviate the difficult conditions” in the disaster area. There is a strong presence of the opposition PRD and PAN political parties. These parties, together with some NGOs, human rights groups, and the EZLN, denounced a series of incidents in which the aid distributed by the government was used to buy votes or to benefit members of the ruling PRI. In one of his several trips to the disaster area, President Zedillo condemned the alleged political use of humanitarian aid. However, he also expressed his doubts about the humanitarian work of the Mexican Red Cross and civil society groups. “I have not seen one kilo of this aid that they are supposedly distributing directly,” he said. His comment was strongly criticized by the Mexican Red Cross and the NGOs.