After the devastating effects of the hurricane Otis a year ago, and John a month ago, Acapulco now faces new storms: bureaucracymisinformation and corruption.
Families affected by the floods and landslides denounced MILLENNIUM an unequal distribution of aid, irregularities in censuses for relocation, even with the collection of supposed payments to obtain proof of being affected, leaving many without hope and without a voice.
As they struggle to rebuild their lives, neighbors of La Libertad neighborhoods, Olivos, San Agustín or even in rural communities already on the shores of Acapulco like Garrapatas in the Cacahuatlan ejido, The river or the hill disappeared several dozen homes, leaving them incommunicado, others are in imminent risk of having what little they have left washed away by the next rain, or by robbery.
Today, families tending their mountains of rubble number in the hundreds, waiting for their phone to ring as promised, and waiting for someone to arrive with a plate of hot food.
“The penguin took her”
“Pingüinos Street was taken away by the penguin,” says Teresa Arreola ironically, while pointing to the river that now runs through what was her home in the Ampliación Los Olivos neighborhood.
Doña Tere, 70 years old, is one of the many victims of this catastrophe. Their home, built with wood and sheet metal, succumbed to the force of the increased canal.
“Here it was but it was made of wood, it was logical… Look how the material ones are well tied, he took them, mine that was made of wood was even faster… it didn’t even tickle his tooth.
“When the Otis We say it had never happened before but it was fast. For three hours he did what he wanted, but this was 5 days, five days it rained, it rained, it rained heavily, floods that we couldn’t even go out to buy anything, everything was flooded, very sad,” he tells MILLENNIUM.
Tere sold clothes on Wednesdays at the market, but her stall also left with the storm. She now lives with a neighbor where she hopes to be relocated and her only support is her senior pension.
-Civil Protection says that this is going to be relocatable, that there is no two ways about it, that these are no longer habitable areas.
-Did they tell you where?
-They haven’t told us yet. They told us to only give the phone number so that they would contact us through that number… and maybe they would give us the land itself.
But he doesn’t lose his sense of humor: “but if they move us to diamond, I won’t go.”
For a month, his neighbor has been giving him shelter in his house, also made of wood and asbestos, with an imminent risk that the river will carry it away in the next rain. Not like that, he maintains hope.
“They say that the hope of the poor dies last, so then you have to wait.
“I imagine that they are going to come at a stage where there is more damage, that is where they are going to release support, like now here there is going to be relocation that will take them to another place but that will be a place where they can live,” Teresa confides.
A few meters away the uncertainty is the feeling of abandonment that predominates. Ezequiel shows his house, he did not lose it, but he did lose all his belongings, including the belongings that the government provided him after the passage of Otis.
Local authorities have promised relocate families of Penguin Street, but so far no details have been provided about the dates, destinations or support they will receive.
“They came from civil protection to carry out a census for the relocation, but up to that point we don’t know anything, they haven’t told us absolutely anything, where are we going to go, how are we going to do it?”
“There are no penguins here, they’re gone, nothing left, everything was taken, John took everything,” says Ezequiel, summarizing the tragedy that this street has experienced.
They arrived, but they did not census all the houses… and they left
The only road that connected the community of Garrapatas with Acapulco left at least 150 families cut off from communication. The first to arrive were “those of the censuses”, but they did not see all the houses, only a few and they left. And the crops – which were ruined for the second year – they did not even look back at.
Anger is felt in this community that feels forgotten, after the five-day storm ate the only way in or out.
“When they ask us for support to vote, we give it and now we want them to not forget us, to come see how the people are doing.
“There was no census, they came to a few houses and that was it until then, houses that were affected were not censused and why were other communities censused? …that is the conformity of others too,” he explains to MILLENNIUM Clara Morales, who serves as commissioner of this town.
Guillermina Flores, inhabitants of this neighborhood, does not miss the opportunity to raise her voice, she regrets that those who went to take a census did not stop by to see her house.
“It gets worse because there is nothing for us to eat, for us to go and bring because the road was destroyed and we can’t go down to buy.
“So we are suffering with what we find and we are eating then they came to take a census; They didn’t count us all, they just notified a few people as they say nothing happened but they should see who needs it,” he confides.
The express request of this community is non-perishable food and personal hygiene items, particularly toilet paper, diapers, sanitary towels and soap.
One hundred pesos for a certificate of victim
For only 100 pesosin the La Libertad neighborhood, or what remains of it, You can acquire a certificate that proves having lived there or in any other area in the La Sabana ejido.; And for 3 thousand, you can get a certificate proving that you were the owner of one of the homes that were left under the mud.
Neighbors of the La Libertad neighborhood, in Acapulco, denounced MILLENNIUM the existence of ‘coyotes’, or managers who, with a supposed endorsement from the Sabana police station and the municipal Civil Protection, would be in charge of deciding who is affected.
Roberto, a resident of La Libertad, fears that the complaint will mean he will be left without some type of support, but not so, he decides to share MILLENNIUM the situation suffered by relatives and neighbors.
“They came and didn’t speak to one, just to a few. The person who comes to the front, now the one who likes him. And it is assumed that we are all and we are all harmed above…
“And if we are going to be relocated, all of us who are up here will be relocated… not just a few.
“Why is it possible that some are going to be removed and others are going to be left? …it is not possible,” Roberto questions.
In particular, they point to a subject named Allan Godínez, who was a local politician, linked to the PRI, and who would have been awarded the representation of the victims of the neighborhood, and who would be charging for the issuance of certificates that prove that they are neighbors. .
“One is for filing to prove that you actually lived at that address, on that land, in that location, that is in case you do not have the water, telephone or electricity bill.
At a second level, “so that people can count them as deeds, but signed by the police station. He is telling them that they must have that role so that they can be relocated. At the police station itself it costs about $8,000 and he is selling it for $3,000 and they are papers that are not registered at the police station and we see that it is wrong,” denounced this neighbor from La Libertad.
In addition, as he explains, he is asking the neighbors to bring the CURP copy of the water bill and the voting credential, when Civil Protection has not concluded with the censuses.
“For what purpose supposedly? We want to understand what he is asking them to get support on the other hand, already with the papers, but how do you explain that he is asking for their papers?”, he questions.
While in the established shelters, the administration of the Tragedy was also seen, according to Paola Venegas, mother of two children, also affected by the La Libertad neighborhood.
“He takes the donations; and he doesn’t leave the oldest clothes to us and then he grabs them aside and counts it quickly and says ‘you already grabbed a cloth, with that one’, and you didn’t grab any more, then I have to grab it for my children and they leave it in the end. ugly, even the shoes, they are already broken, one of them was broken and I told him to change it and he didn’t want to change it because one should check it, but how are we going to check it if he is counting the time quickly to grab things? “, denounces Paola.
In Libertad, needs are concentrated in diapers, personal hygiene items, and clothing.
