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CUBAN ELECTIONS ON; NO WORD ON CASTRO
The Miami Herald
Nov. 01, 2007
HAVANA --
Newly-elected municipal assemblies will convene across Cuba in two weeks as the communist-run island's multitiered-election process advances without word on the future of an ailing Fidel Castro.
In an order published Thursday on the front page of the state newspaper Granma, Cuba's top executive body decreed that the 15,236 municipal assembly members elected on Oct. 21 and in two subsequent runoff votes will meet for the first time Nov. 16. The order was signed by Castro's brother and acting president, Raul.
DISSIDENT: CUBANS DETAINED FOR BRACELETS
The Miami Herald
Nov. 01, 2007
HAVANA --
Cuban police rounded up a group of young people wearing white rubber wristbands stenciled with the word "cambio," or "change," and held them for hours before releasing them without filing charges, a human rights activist said Thursday.
The detentions, which took place Monday, went little-noticed on the island but sparked an outcry three days later in Washington, where top officials and critics of Cuba's communist government said at least 70 youths had been arrested.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said an unknown number of young people were wearing the bracelets when they were detained and taken to a police station in central Havana.
AMENDMENTS WOULD LET CHAVEZ RUN AGAIN
The Miami Herald
Nov. 02, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
Venezuela's pro-government National Assembly overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms on Friday that would greatly expand the power of President Hugo Chavez and permit him to run for re-election indefinitely.
The 69 changes to Venezuela's Constitution now go to citizens for a Dec. 2 vote.
The proposed changes, Chavez's most radical move yet in his push to transform Venezuela into a socialist state, threaten to spur a new wave of political upheaval in this oil-rich South American country already deeply divided over Chavez's rule.
The amendments would allow the government to expropriate private property prior to a court ruling and take total control over the Central Bank, create new types of property managed by cooperatives, and extend presidential terms from six to seven years while allowing Chavez to run again in 2012.
A CHANGED WORLD?
The Washington Post
November 2, 2007
WASHINGTON -- A few years ago, Bolivia's dependence on Washington as a source of cash was such that its ministers made frequent treks begging for loans to meet the government payroll. They usually had no trouble getting them because Bolivia could be counted on to follow to the letter the economic prescriptions of the international financial institutions located here.
Then in 2006, Bolivia broke with the International Monetary Fund and signaled its desire for independence. Now this week the Andean nation becomes the first country ever to withdraw from the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank body that referees contract disagreements between foreign investors and host countries.
TROOPS CLASH WITH VENEZUELAN PROTESTERS
The Miami Herald
Nov. 02, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
Soldiers used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter tens of thousands who massed Thursday to protest constitutional reforms that would permit Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely.
Led by university students, protesters chanted "Freedom! Freedom!" and warned that 69 amendments drafted by the Chavista-dominated National Assembly would violate civil liberties and derail democracy.
It was the biggest turnout against Chavez in months, and appeared to revive Venezuela's languid opposition at a time when the president seems as strong as ever. Students promised more street demonstrations over the weekend, but no opposition-led protests were planned for Friday.
AFTER TEEN SUICIDES, AN ARGENTINE TRIBE OUTLAWS 'WHITE' VICES
The Christian Science Monitor
November 2, 2007
Fortin Mborore, Argentina - Every Saturday night Victoriano Espindola would dance, drink, and often end up in a fight. He lost his left eye in one brawl.
But now the 21-year-old spends quiet nights with his parents and six siblings in this indigenous village in a tropical corner of Argentina.
The village is in the midst of a quarantine called for by the cacique, or traditional leader, after two teens shocked the community by committing suicide in September. All members now must be home by 7 p.m., alcohol is strictly forbidden, and all youths must attend traditional dance classes and consultations with elders.
BOLIVIA'S MORALES RECOUNTS POLICE ABUSE
The Miami Herald
Nov. 03, 2007
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- In a new feature film about his journey from dirt-poor sheep herder to Bolivia's president, Evo Morales is portrayed being beaten unconscious by anti-narcotics police and found the next day by fellow coca union leaders.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Morales said there were in fact multiple beatings during his years fighting forced coca eradication - and that he wants the armed U.S. agents who still direct his country's anti-narcotics police to leave Bolivia.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FLEE MEXICO FLOODS
The Miami Herald
Nov. 03, 2007
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico --
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans fled a flooded region of the Gulf coast Friday, jumping from rooftops into rescue helicopters, scrambling into boats or swimming out through murky brown water. President Felipe Calderon called the flooding in Tabasco state one of Mexico's worst recent natural disasters, and pledged to rebuild.
A week of heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, drowning at least 80 percent of the oil-rich state. Much of the state capital, Villahermosa, looked like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, with water reaching to second-story rooftops and desperate people awaiting rescue.
FLOODWATERS DEVASTATE MEXICAN STATE OF TABASCO
The New York Times
November 3, 2007
MEXICO CITY, Nov. 2 — Navy helicopters plucked people from roofs on Friday as rising floodwaters covered much of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco, putting the state capital, Villahermosa, underwater.
Boats plied the city streets, picking up families trapped by the rising waters of the Grijalva River, which has surged six feet above its normal height amid heavy rains, unrelated to Tropical Storm Noel, this week. The river breached its banks in several places over the past few days, sending soldiers and residents to pile sandbags in an effort to contain the waters.
More than 30,000 people were being housed in shelters, which were full. Some families preferred to camp out, watching over the few possessions they could save, local newspapers reported.
LAWMAKERS IN VENEZUELA APPROVE EXPANDED POWER FOR CHÁVEZ
The New Times
November 3, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 2 — The National Assembly approved a constitutional overhaul on Friday that would enhance President Hugo Chávez’s authority, allowing him to be re-elected indefinitely and giving him the power to handpick rulers, to be called vice presidents, for various new regions to be created in the country.
The 69 amendments still need to be approved by voters in a Dec. 2 referendum before they take effect.
Tensions ahead of that vote are increasing; protesters clashed with the police on downtown streets here this week and capital flight is accelerating. The currency, the bolívar, touched a low value of 6,800 to the dollar on Friday in unregulated trading, compared with the official rate of 2,150.
GUATEMALA CHOOSES A NEW PRESIDENT
The Miami Herald
Nov. 04, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY --
A former general vowing a crackdown on rampant crime holds a slim edge in polls over a businessman who promises to end desperate poverty by creating jobs, as Guatemalans chooses their next president Sunday.
More than 30,000 police and soldiers are on alert after weeks of campaigning marred by violence. Another 20,000 national and international observers will also fan out across the nation.
Security has been a top issue among voters in Central America's most violent country, with more than 5,000 homicides per year.
AN IMITATOR OF CHÁVEZ: HE MAY BE SINCERE, BUT IS IT FLATTERING?
The New York Times
November 4, 2007
VALENCIA, Venezuela, Oct. 30 — President Hugo Chávez has his own weekly television show in which he expounds on Socialist virtues. So does Luis Felipe Acosta Carlez, the governor of Carabobo, a state here in northern Venezuela that is home to a major oil-refining complex.
The president woos his followers with recordings of boleros and other romantic songs. So does Mr. Acosta Carlez.
The list of similarities is long, Mr. Acosta Carlez proudly acknowledges: the red shirts, the military background, and on and on.
“Chávez is our maximum leader,” Mr. Acosta Carlez, 50, said in an interview at his office in the governor’s palace here, seated under a portrait of the president, who is three years older than he is. “I consider him my father,” he said, “my political father.”
CHOOSING A FUTURE FROM TAINTED PASTS
The Washington Post
November 4, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY, Nov. 3 -- Guatemalans vote Sunday in a presidential runoff election shaped as much by the candidates' pasts as their visions for the future.
The campaigns of retired army Gen. Otto Pérez Molina and three-time presidential contender Álvaro Colom have been hampered by persistent accusations of misdeeds that have reopened wounds from this country's 1960-96 civil war and highlighted its struggle with endemic corruption.
Pérez Molina, a former head of Guatemala's army intelligence unit who is promising to rule with an "iron fist," has been linked by international human rights groups to civil war-era death squads. Colom has faced a campaign finance scandal and accusations that he escaped prosecution through influence-peddling.
MEXICANS APPALLED BY SCENES FROM FLOODED STATE
The New York Times
November 4, 2007
MEXICO CITY, Nov. 3 — Mexicans were gripped Saturday by images of dramatic rescues from flooding in the southeastern state of Tabasco, where much of the state capital, Villahermosa, was underwater and the governor said that thousands of people waited on their rooftops for help to arrive.
Newspapers and television showed photos of Navy helicopters scooping up children from roofs and rescuers lowering elderly people into boats. Many of those who could leave on their own waded or swam though chest-high brackish water.
The flooding in the state was brought on by days of unrelenting rain, which caused several rivers to overflow.
TEACHER IS ARRESTED IN MEXICO WITH BOY FROM HER SCHOOL
The New York Times
November 4, 2007
LEXINGTON, Neb., Nov. 3 (AP) — A teacher accused of running away with one of her former students, a 13-year-old boy, has been arrested in Mexico, a prosecutor said Saturday.
The teacher, Kelsey Peterson, a sixth-grade mathematics teacher and a basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, was arrested in Mexicali, Mexico, on the California border, said the prosecutor, Elizabeth Waterman, who is the Dawson County attorney.
Ms. Peterson, 25, and the boy were found and apprehended Friday night by Mexican authorities.
The boy was released to relatives in Mexico, Ms. Waterman said. Ms. Peterson was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was transported back to the United States.
DESPERATION GROWS AS RAINS POUND HAITI
The Miami Herald
Nov. 04, 2007
LES CAYES, Haiti --
Thousands of Haitians sought shelter in schoolhouses Saturday as the death toll from Tropical Storm Noel rose to 143 across the Caribbean.
Heavy rains continued to pound Haiti, leaving U.N. and Haitian officials temporarily stranded as they toured Haiti's flooded southern peninsula.
Noel, which was lashing the northeastern United States with high winds and rough surf Saturday, is the deadliest storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, with the greatest devastation on the waterlogged island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
IN MEXICO'S 'KATRINA,' VOLUNTEERS JOIN RELIEF EFFORTS
The Christian Science Monitor
November 5, 2007
Villahermosa, Mexico - As water rose to the roof of his home – nearly covering it as it has covered 80 percent of the Mexican state of Tabasco – Oscar Durango says there was nothing else to do but pitch in.
"I lost everything," he says, standing in the hangar at the airport of Tabasco's state capital, Villahermosa, before loading baby food and bottles of water into military helicopters for the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans displaced by the nation's worst flooding in 50 years. Mr. Durango is surrounded by a dozen other volunteers. All have lost their homes. "The only thing you can do is help others," he shrugs.
IN MEXICO, RESIDENTS CONTEND WITH A FLOODED CITY
The New York Times
November 5, 2007
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Nov. 4 — Williams García paddled a kayak Sunday over the waters that covered much of Villahermosa, the flooded capital of the state of Tabasco, searching for news of his family.
Villahermosa residents were ferried to their neighborhoods in an effort to recover possessions from their flooded homes.
A construction worker who was at work on Tuesday, when flooding began in his area, Mr. García returned to his corrugated tin home to find it filled with water. Worse, there was no trace of his wife, two infant children, mother or four younger brothers.
GUATEMALAN VOTERS ELECT BUSINESSMAN
The new York Times
November 5, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY, Nov. 4 — A former army general who once took on the insurgency in Guatemala’s long civil war lost his battle for the country’s presidency on Sunday night, with voters rejecting his plan to use an iron fist, as well as the country’s military, to control a sky-high murder rate.
The man who won was Álvaro Colom, a gawky policy wonk and businessman who made fighting poverty his campaign’s centerpiece.
Otto Pérez Molina, the former general, suggested that his background as a soldier and intelligence chief would help him take on criminals but Mr. Colom appeared to convince voters that electing a soldier, especially one tainted by allegations of past misdeeds, to the country’s highest office would return the country to a dark past when a corrupt military ruled.
DOCTORS FIGHT NO-ABORTION POLICY
The Miami Herald
Nov. 05, 2007
MANAGUA, Nicaragua --
Two weeks after Olga Reyes danced at her wedding, her bloated and disfigured body was laid to rest in an open coffin - the victim, her husband and some experts say, of Nicaragua's new no-exceptions ban on abortion.
Reyes, a 22-year-old law student, suffered an ectopic pregnancy. The fetus develops outside the uterus, cannot survive and causes bleeding that endangers the mother. But doctors seemed afraid to treat her because of the anti-abortion law, said husband Agustin Perez. By the time they took action, it was too late.
MEXICAN FLOOD VICTIMS SCRAMBLE FOR FOOD
The Miami Herald
Nov. 05, 2007
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico --
A massive wave of mud and water swept through a Mexican village Monday and up to 16 people were feared buried, officials said, as rescuers elsewhere worked furiously to deliver aid to victims of massive flooding in southern Mexico.
A landslide blocked an already rain-swollen river and pushed a wall of water and debris over remote San Juan Grijalva, home to about 600 people, most of whom fled into the hills ahead of the advancing wave.
"This village practically disappeared," said Chiapas Gov. Juan Sabines, who was at the scene where rescue workers were digging for possible victims. Helicopters were seeking out residents who had fled into the hills, in order to evacuate them.
COLOM WINS PRESIDENCY IN GUATEMALAN RUNOFF
The Washington Post
November 5, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY, Nov. 4 -- Álvaro Colom, who struggled with internal defections and disappointing poll numbers in the final stages of Guatemala's presidential campaign, won a startling victory Sunday.
With 96.18 percent of polling places counted, Colom led retired army Gen. Otto Pérez Molina 52.71 percent to 47.29 percent.
"This is a new page in the history of the country," Colom told reporters gathered at his Guatemala City home.
ANTI-POVERTY CANDIDATE WINS IN GUATEMALA
The Miami Herald
Nov. 05, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY --
Alvaro Colom, a businessman promising to end Guatemala's desperate poverty, won the country's presidential election, according to official results Monday.
Colom beat retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, who conceded defeat after results showed him trailing Colom in the two-man runoff.
"I am the nation's president elect," Colom told cheering supporters late Sunday.
With 99 percent of voting stations reporting early Monday, Colom, of the center-left National Unity of Hope Party, had nearly 53 percent of the vote compared with 47 percent for Perez, who ran on a tough anti-crime platform.
Colom, 56, is a former vice economy secretary and ordained Mayan minister who won the presidency on his third try. He promised jobs, a judicial overhaul and increased social spending in Guatemala, where more than half of the country's 13 million people live on less than $2 a day.
30 DEAD IN ARGENTINE PRISON FIRE
The Miami Herald
Nov. 05, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Officials recovered the bodies of 30 prisoners Monday from a fire-scorched cellblock where inmates lit mattresses in what appeared to be an escape attempt, the worst prison fire in Argentina since 2005.
Many of the victims were found in a bathroom, their faces covered with rags they had apparently used to filter out the dense smoke as flames raced through a cellblock at a men's penitentiary Sunday night, according to authorities.
NO CRIME, NO PUNISHMENT
The Miami Herald
Nov. 05, 2007
It is a dramatic tale. After losing his bid for the presidency in democratic elections, a cocalero congressman immediately turns to violent protests that succeed in toppling the man who beat him. At the head of an angry mob, the populist leader forces early elections, leading to his winning of the presidency on his second attempt. The new president then grabs the reins of once independent courts, forcing trumped-up criminal charges against the political foe whom he hounded from office.
The main character in this political thriller is Bolivian President Evo Morales, who has earned an anti-American reputation by forging close ties with Cuba, Venezuela, Libya and Iran. His political rival is respected former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who defeated Morales in 2002, but gave up power in 2003 hoping that Morales would spare the country from more violence.
SMALL PLANE CRASHES INTO A SÃO PAULO NEIGHBORHOOD, KILLING SIX
The New York Times
November 5, 2007
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Nov. 4 (Reuters) — At least six people were killed when a small plane crashed into a residential district of São Paulo just after taking off on Sunday, officials said, in the latest accident in Brazil’s crisis-ridden air system.
The plane, a Learjet 35 belonging to the Reali air taxi company, had just taken off from Campo de Marte airfield on the outskirts of São Paulo en route to Rio de Janeiro, said an official from the state airport authority, Infraero.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The city had been hit by rainstorms, but the weather was not especially bad at the time of the crash.
CHILEAN PRESIDENCY WEB PAGE HACKED
The Miami Herald
Nov. 05, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile --
A hacker broke into the Web page of Chile's presidency and planted the flag of neighboring Peru, leaving the site inoperable for about 18 hours until it was restored Monday.
The intruder left a message - "Long live Peru," followed by an expletive - as well as the flag around midday Sunday. Officials took the site down a few minutes later, leaving a notice: "Because we want to give a better service, we are working for you."
The site was restored Monday morning.
MEXICANS MISSING AFTER FLOOD, LANDSLIDE
The Miami Herald
Nov. 06, 2007
OSTUACAN, Mexico --
Survivors saw relatives swept away by huge waves or buried by debris after a landslide hit a rain-swollen river, triggering what officials called a "mini-tsunami" that wiped a hamlet off the map and left at least 16 people missing.
Residents of San Juan Grijalva told The Associated Press on Monday they had been awakened by a rumbling roar and the sound of rocks rolling down from surrounding mountaintops on Sunday night, almost a week after massive flooding sent rivers over their banks in the southern Mexican states of Chiapas and neighboring Tabasco.
"It was a roar, like a helicopter was passing overhead," recounted farmer Domingo Sanchez, 21. "We didn't know what was happening, and then we went outside, and there were cracks opening the earth," he said, apparently recounting the initial collapse of a nearby hillside into the river. "We ran up the hill ... but soil kept coming down on us."
HEALING HEARTS AND, POSSIBLY, DIVISIONS IN GUATEMALA
The New York Times
November 6, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY, Nov. 5 — Heart surgery might not appear to have much in common with politics, especially the bare-knuckle brand practiced in Guatemala. But this country’s newly elected vice president, a prominent cardiologist here and in Houston, has long dabbled in both worlds.
Dr. Rafael Espada, Guatemala’s newly elected vice president, had shuttled between his Texas home and his homeland of Guatemala to perform operations. He plans to end his medical career.
For decades, Dr. Rafael Espada has been the heart surgeon to Guatemala’s political elite. No matter whether they were military dictators, cabinet members on the take or straight-as-an-arrow public servants, he cleared their arteries, repaired their valves and asked no questions.
AS TABASCO FLOODWATERS RECEDE, A SPIRIT OF RECOVERY – AND HUMOR
The Christian Science Monitor
November 6, 2007
Villahermosa, Mexico - Down a street where the water has swallowed the cars and telephone booths, Eric Perez waits in a long line for a boat ride home.
The queue is for residents going to visit houses they were forced to abandon this past week, when floodwaters submerged most of the state of Tabasco. Their ferries are police or military boats or dinghies piloted by private citizens helping out. And they return not knowing what to expect.
Mr. Perez hops into a yellow raft with some family members and a few neighbors. Their boat is guided by volunteers from an adventure rafting team, who normally carry tourists in the neighboring state of Veracruz.
AS FLOODS EBB IN SOUTH, MEXICO TENDS TO DISPLACED
The New York Times
November 6, 2007
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Nov. 5 — Residents of the state of Tabasco woke up Monday to find that the swollen rivers that had flooded much of the state had begun to subside. But there were plentiful signs that the worst may not be over.
At least 16 people were missing after a hillside gave way in the neighboring state of Chiapas, where the same heavy rains that caused the floods had cut off some mountain villages. The mudslide swept into the Grijalva River so fast that it created a wave that covered the village of San Juan Grijalva, dragging people into the water, Mexico’s Interior Ministry said.
Helicopters flew soldiers and police to assist survivors and search for the dead.
Until the mudslide, the death toll stood at less than 10 in both Tabasco and Chiapas States, despite five days of heavy rains that put much of low-lying Tabasco under water last week.
VENEZUELAN GENERAL LIKENS CHÁVEZ’S PROPOSALS FOR CONSTITUTION TO A COUP
The New York Times
November 6, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 5 — In a sharp indictment of President Hugo Chávez’s proposed changes to the Constitution, the former top army commander here described the proposed charter on Monday as “in effect a coup d’état” intended to abolish checks on Mr. Chávez’s expanding power.
The former commander, Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel, who was also defense minister until his retirement last July, had been one of Mr. Chávez’s closest allies after helping to reinstall him in office during a brief coup in 2002. At a news conference here, he called the president’s proposals a “nondemocratic imposition that would put us into tragic retreat.”
The criticism from General Baduel, who said he saw little reason to replace the existing Constitution written in 1999, points to fissures among the president’s supporters ahead of a referendum on the constitutional overhaul scheduled for Dec. 2.
SCIENTIST CLAIMS TO FIND NEW PIG SPECIES
The Miami Herald
Nov. 06, 2007
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil --
A Dutch scientist thinks he has discovered a new species of wild pig nearly twice the size of other pigs in Brazil's Amazon region.
At four feet long and 90 pounds, the pig is the latest in a string of new species that Marc van Roosmalen reported to have found since 1996. His findings were published in the Oct. 29 edition of the German scientific journal Bonner Zoologische Beitrage.
Van Roosmalen, said his discovery of the peccary - a kind of wild pig he dubbed Pecari maximus - points out the need to protect the region as a habitat for wild species.
COLOMBIAN REBELS TO PROVE CAPTIVES ALIVE
The Miami Herald
Nov. 06, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
The chief of Colombia's FARC rebels has ordered his fighters to present proof that dozens of hostages are still alive, including three Americans and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday.
Chavez, who is seeking to negotiate a swap of hostages for jailed guerillas, said he received a written message saying rebel commander Manuel Marulanda "has ordered that the proof of life be taken."
"Not only Ingrid (Betancourt) but also the rest held by the FARC," Chavez told state television. "That could be an advancement."
ARGENTINA OPENS DIRTY WAR MEMORIAL
The Miami Herald
Nov. 07, 2007
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --
Argentina's president unveiled a memorial to victims of the so-called Dirty War that claimed some 13,000 lives during the country's military dictatorship, using the occasion to urge judges to speed human rights trials.
President Nestor Kirchner and hundreds of human rights activists gathered Wednesday at the new Memorial Park, where the names of thousands of victims of the country's 1976-83 military junta have been etched on a wall alongside the River Plate.
Staring across the muddy river as a jet roared overhead, Kirchner recounted how drugged, naked political prisoners were tossed from planes to their deaths in the waters under the military regime.
EX-MILITARY CHIEF CHALLENGES CHAVEZ
The Miami Herald
Nov. 07, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela --
A heated falling out between President Hugo Chavez and his former military chief has revealed divisions within the military that analysts say are a constant concern for the Venezuelan leader.
Former Defense Minister Raul Baduel, a longtime friend of Chavez, surprised many this week when he condemned constitutional reforms proposed by Chavez as a virtual "coup," urging voters to reject them in a national referendum tentatively set for Dec. 2.
He said Tuesday he isn't ruling out a run for office.
FEARS OVER AFTERMATH OF MEXICO FLOODS
The New York Times
November 7, 2007
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Nov. 6 — Many parts of this city remained underwater on Tuesday, more than a week after torrential rain swelled rivers that then burst their banks, as the authorities and residents expressed concern about the potential for looting and for outbreaks of disease.
In the neighborhood Las Gaviotas, one of the hardest hit, the floodwaters were more than nine feet deep.
“We were the first to leave and we will be the last to go back,” said Ruth Sánchez Acosta, who was staying with friends near Villahermosa’s main cathedral.
RAINS BRING MEXICO'S POVERTY TO SURFACE
The Washington Post
November 7, 2007
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico, Nov. 6 -- Roofs rot underwater, stretched out by the thousands over miles and miles. But it is the roofs jutting just above the brown, stinking floodwaters that truly make the heart ache.
Those roofs are makeshift homes now, refuges for weary men, women and children too scared to leave behind what little they have. The streets below are liquid highways clotted with dugout canoes, but the people up on the roofs and in the fetid second-story rooms just watch them go past.
"They'd take everything if I weren't here," Manuel Vázquez said Tuesday as he clung to a railing above his waterlogged Villahermosa home. "I'm resigned to staying here." |
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