Hermano Sol Hurricane Report
Hermano Sol is a grassroots community organization that works in the Chiapas Sierra Madre mountains and many of their communites were profoundly affected by the hurricane.
We would like to inform you about the present situation of the members of HERMANO SOL from the Sierra Mountains and coast of Chiapas that were affected by Hurricane Stan, and now are suffering the terrible results of its path through our state and our communities.
The most recent figures from the Chiapas State government are that two and a half million people have been affected by Hurricane Stan, including thousands that have lost their homes and are now among the 500,000 refugees in 152 emergency shelters, of which 22 are severely overpopulated, and have exceeded their capacity to shelter and attend to the refugees.
In the case of the Sierra Mountains, the Department of Civil Protection has declared that there are more than 450,000 people trapped in the mountains, due to the rivers and streams that have flooded with the intense rainfall.
Communication at the regional level is in a critical state, with 55 bridges collapsed, and 45 others damaged and in danger of collapse. More than 1,000 kilometers of highway along the coast in the Sierra have been destroyed by Hurricane Stan.
The number of people that have died as a result of flooding and mudslides, according to the latest Mexican Red Cross census, is now more than 200 dead. However, the state government has declared that number at only 30.
The provision of humanitarian aid has thus far been quite low, and it is very difficult to deliver it to the population centers, given the problems with land transportation and communication. The aid is mostly from the state government, NGOs and the population that has not been affected by the hurricane. The federal government, headed by Mr. Vicente Fox, has decided not to declare the region a “disaster area,” which means that the considerable economic resources that could be channeled to the region will not be arriving. One of the reasons that the coastal and sierra region has not been declared a disaster area is that the resources that had been designated for the National Emergency Program have been “invested” in the costly political campaign of the PAN [National Action Party] for the 2006 elections, where Mr. Fox’s candidate is the ex-Secretary of Governance [akin to the Secretary of State in the U.S.], Santiago Creel.
The humanitarian aid has thus far been directed primarily to the municipalities in the low-lying areas. The economy is stronger in these areas, and the population is larger and is easier to reach. In spite of this, aid levels for the affected population have still been insufficient.
In the case of our communities—as with all of the other communities located in the mountains—they have been isolated since October 2 and have not received any aid from the municipal, state or federal governments. For the state and federal governments, the priority areas are those municipalities where economic activity in goods and services is most concentrated, and thus they forget about or leave for last the municipalities and communities in the Sierra Madre of Chiapas where live the campesinos and indigenous people who grow the cities’ food.
The indigenous and campesino men and women that live in the mountains do not have stores (or money) to supply themselves with food. 90 percent of what they consume is what they themselves have to produce.
Hurricane Stan destroyed all of this year’ corn and bean crops; and swept away the chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits and pigs that the people were raising. The principal source of income for campesino men and women in the Sierra is their coffee crop. Stan destroyed approximately 40 percent of the coffee plants, which means that this year there will not be a coffee harvest and the coming years will be very difficult.
The communities in the Sierra that make up our organization, HERMANO SOL, do not have roads, but rather narrow paths along which they walk up and down the sides of the mountains. The community that is farthest from the municipal seat is 15 hours away on foot. That trip will now take much longer, because Hurricane Stan tore down large hills and disappeared the small roads and paths used by the campesinos.
People, animals, coffee and corn plants, houses, and many yards of the plastic tubing that transports water to the communities were also lost in these mudslides. The problem now is thus not only the lack of food in the communities, but also the gastrointestinal illnesses that will inevitably come due to lack of water; and the respiratory illnesses due to lack of clothing and housing.
We in HERMANO SOL are focusing our work on the construction of rope bridges so that humanitarian aid is able to get through to communities; and the coordination of relief efforts with other organizations present in our region, as well as Civil Protection, the municipal presidency, and the sanitation jurisdiction. We are also coordinating with Doctors of the World, France, which just recently managed to arrive and begin working in emergency medical relief in the region.
The most urgent need in the region is food, especially beans, rice, pasta, corn flour for tortillas, salt and soap; and secondarily all manner of goods that do not break easily (other foods, clothing, medicines, hoses, shovels and picks, etc.).
We are presently receiving and storing supplies in the Tonala municipality, and from there we will be taking them to our region once the roads are cleared and the rope bridges to the communities are in place. Civil Protection and the municipal presidencies have committed to supporting us in the transport of supplies by helicopter. We hope that they really will have this capacity, which would greatly help us in getting the food supplies more quickly delivered to the affected population.
For the moment we are continuing to pressure the Civil Protection Service and the municipality to deliver food to the communities in the Sierra, and this has begun to work; but in the face of such a perilous situation, the relief supplies are far too little. We hope that we can count on the solidarity of all of you to help our members and as many of the communities that we can.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SOLIDARITY
To support Hermano Sol through donations please see the Seva Foundation website. The Seva Foundation is working with Hermano Sol and other Chiapas organizations to deliver relief aid to affected communities. Donate here: http://www.seva.org/news008.php
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