Hopes fade in Mexico as search enters sixth day

World
Europe

Emergency workers are searching by floodlight in devastated buildings for survivors of Mexico’s deadliest earthquake in 32 years amid fading rescue prospects, five nights after the disaster, and as President Enrique Pena Nieto urged Mexicans to turn their attentions to reconstruction.

Searches continue in a ruined office building in Mexico City’s trendy Roma neighborhood and in a five-story apartment block in historic Tlalpan after Tuesday’s magnitude-7.1 quake destroyed dozens of buildings and killed over 300 people.

The temblor, Mexico’s worst since thousands lost their lives in a quake in 1985, may have left some 30,000 badly damaged homes in the adjacent states of Morelos and Puebla and economic losses of somewhere between US$4 billion and US$8 billion.

But authorities called off efforts in the upper-middle class Linda Vista neighborhood, after pulling ten bodies from the rubble, while work at the Tlalpan-based apartment building was briefly halted on Saturday due to a further earthquake that shook southern Mexico and spread fear in the capital.

Rescue work underway in Mexico City. /Xinhua Photo

“In Tlalpan, there is still a possibility of finding people alive. It’s URGENT,” read a meme passed around Saturday on social networks.

The government’s response to the disaster is under close scrutiny ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Frustration has grown among the thousands left homeless, with critics saying the government reaction pales in comparison to the outpouring of volunteer support, from rescue work to food donations.

When Tuesday’s quake hit, Mexico was already reeling from an earthquake on September 7 that killed at least 98 people and was the strongest in the country in 85 years.

Aftershocks on Saturday spread fear among Mexico’s traumatized population and a plume of ash spewed from the Popocatepetl volcano in another reminder of the country’s volatile geology.

Rescue work underway in Mexico City. /Xinhua Photo

President Enrique Pena Nieto sought to hit back against criticism, highlighting government aid for survivors on a Saturday tour of Jiquipilas in the poor southern state of Chiapas, which was badly hit by the September 7 quake.

“Be assured that the federal government is here, the state and local governments, supporting you, hand in hand, to rebuild,” he told residents.

But many Mexicans are wary of politicians using the quake to score political points, ahead of the 2018 elections that are seen as a referendum on the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s patchy record since returning to power in 2012.

Francisco Honoraro, a 46-year-old farmer in Mexico City’s fertile Xochimilco district, is living on the streets while he waits for authorities to assess damage to his home, which is currently propped up by wooden beams after the quake.

“This is going to become political, a campaign issue and a source of profit: If you support me and you vote for me, we will help you,” he said.

12475km

Source(s): Reuters