Guatemala to Leave Dead in Buried Areas

By Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer

46 minutes ago

 

GUATEMALA CITY - Dozens of foreign tourists fled devastated lakeside Mayan towns on foot and by helicopter Sunday as Guatemalan officials said they would abandon communities buried by landslides and declare them mass graveyards.

 

Villagers who had swarmed over the vast mudslides with shovels and axes digging for hundreds of missing gave up the effort Sunday, five days after Hurricane Stan made landfall on the Gulf of Mexico coast, bringing torrential rains before weakening to a tropical depression.

 

More than 640 people died and hundreds more were missing across Central America and southern Mexico after a week of rains. In hardest-hit Guatemala, 519 bodies had been recovered and reburied. Some 338 were listed as missing.

 

"Panabaj will no longer exist," said Mayor Diego Esquina, referring to the Mayan lakeside hamlet in Guatemala covered by a half-mile-wide mudflow as much as 15 to 20 feet deep. "We are asking that it be declared a cemetery. We are tired. We no longer know where to dig."

 

Many of the missing apparently will simply be declared dead, and the ground they rest in declared hallowed ground. About 160 bodies have been recovered in Panabaj and nearby towns, and most have been buried in mass graves.

 

Vice President Eduardo Stein said steps were being taken to give towns "legal permission to declare the buried areas" as hallowed ground.

 

Attention turned to aiding thousands of hungry or injured survivors as helicopters — including U.S. Blackhawks and Chinooks — fanned out across Guatemala to evacuate the wounded and bring supplies to more than 100 communities still cut off by mudslides and flooding.

 

On Sunday, as aid workers reached the most remote areas, they learned that a mudslide had buried a storm shelter in the town of Tacana, about 12 miles from the Mexican border, where about 100 people had taken refuge from rains and flooding.

 

Thirty-seven bodies have been dug from the shelter since the mudslide hit Wednesday, and 52 people were still missing, said Jorge Hernandez of the country's civil defense agency.

 

Thousands of hungry and injured survivors mobbed helicopters delivering the first food aid to communities that have been cut off from the outside world for nearly a week.

 

Some communities along Guatemala's Pacific coast have been cut off for almost a week, and when aid helicopters finally arrived on Sunday, hungry and desperate villagers grabbed wildly at bags of flour, rice and sugar.

 

As some foreign tourists worked shoulder to shoulder with Mayans in traditional cotton blouses and broad sashes to dig for missing victims, others hiked around mud-choked roads or boarded government helicopters in the second day of evacuations from the area around Lake Atitlan.

 

Helicopters went to the nearby town of San Andres Semetabaj to fly out an estimated 20 Scandinavians trapped since mudslides cut off the area several days ago. About 50 more tourists were hiking out of the lakeside town of Panajachel.

 

"We got about 400 (tourists) out last night, and were expecting more today," said Solomon Reyes of Guatemala's Tourism Ministry.

 

In some areas the arrival of the Guatemalan military only complicated matters. Villagers in Panabaj refused to allow in the army because of memories of a 1990 massacre there during the country's 36-year civil war.

 

But U.S. military helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo based at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras joined the rescue efforts with a half-dozen Blackhawk helicopters and one Chinook transport helicopter, running flights through dense clouds and heavy fog.

 

"We're still in search-and-rescue mode," said Army Maj. Bob Schmidt. "We're in the saving life and limb thought process."

 

The U.S. craft delivered some medical supplies and personnel and evacuated children needing medical care.

 

In El Salvador, authorities reported 71 deaths from the rains, after two people where swept away by flood waters in San Salvador on Saturday.

 

The rest of the dead were scattered throughout Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and southern Mexico.

 

Mexican President Vicente Fox visited devastated Chiapas state Sunday as floodwaters began to recede.

 

"The important thing is that the worst is over," Fox said. "Now comes the reconstruction."

 

Source

see.... this is what I am talking about.

 

I posted on Hurricane Stan and yet you don't see this on the new like we did the tsnuami or the recent earthquake.

 

sad.. just sad. :cry:

^ true i very recently heard about it and the news are lacking the urgency with which they reported the other disasters you mentioned :( :cry:

:stunned:

The countries affected aren't rich and don't attract any western tourists.

 

That's why nobody's helping...

^that's the sad reality.

 

just like the genocide in Rwanda. Embarrasingly, i was one of those people.

The countries affected aren't rich and don't attract any western tourists.

 

That's why nobody's helping...

 

 

I know. this is what upsets me.... today I heard on the news that the president of the US has promised x-amount of dollars in aide to the victims of the earthquake.... :confused: hello... what happened to the money he promised the city of NY after 9/11...

i wanted to post something, about this but i couldnt find a link, so sad.

 

anyway i respect the lives that without out reason were lost in this horrible date.

 

but i also want everyone to be concious that in this date we latin americans remeber sadly how a president with different ideas was killed because he was affecting american interests.

 

salvador allende was chosen to be president of chile. he began to change things, he started a socialist goverment. as far as i know everyone, in chile, was pleased with his decisions.

 

at this time usa and the urss where at the so called "cold war" so usa saw this as a "bad example" for all goverments.

 

usa ordered militars to kill salvador allende, they attacked the "palacio de la moneda". killed salvador allende and thousands of innocent people.

 

i dont want to offend anyone bt posting this, but i want to make people a little more consious that our life is the world not a country.

 

no olvidamos, no perdonamos.

 

yes..sad...just only rich countries get attention...

The countries affected aren't rich and don't attract any western tourists.

 

That's why nobody's helping...

 

 

I know. this is what upsets me.... today I heard on the news that the president of the US has promised x-amount of dollars in aide to the victims of the earthquake.... :confused: hello... what happened to the money he promised the city of NY after 9/11...

 

Has New York still not recieved any money from 9/11? :stunned:

That's why nobody's helping...

 

I'm just sitting here in shock - is there nothing no tragedy that won't be used as a weapon to knock at the US?? How can you or anybody else say that "nobody's helping"; watch the news much?

 

 

I know many here loathe the US, loathe our President, many I guess simply loathe our success (I take a good look sometimes at the comments people post and it just saddens me that it appears to spawn from a chasm of base jealousy.. then gathers steam with every 'opportunity' to blame the US yet again for something).

 

What I don't understand is that we're damned if we do - damned if we don't.

 

If we get there too quickly?? We're just trying to 'exsert influence'.

Too slow?? We just plain do care.

 

Countless charities (faith and non faith based)

Tens of millions in pledged donations from the US Govt. alone.. after billions seemingly needed for disasters on our own soil.

Pakistani's who are US citizens raising funds along with their communities to help.

Military aid

Schools

Churches

Businesses..

 

Yeah, we could really care less. :rolleyes:

The countries affected aren't rich and don't attract any western tourists.

 

That's why nobody's helping...

 

 

I know. this is what upsets me.... today I heard on the news that the president of the US has promised x-amount of dollars in aide to the victims of the earthquake.... :confused: hello... what happened to the money he promised the city of NY after 9/11...

 

Has New York still not recieved any money from 9/11? :stunned:

 

not as much as they promised... and everyday (well it seems like everyday) another firehouse gets shut down. :(

Again, my thoghts and prayers are being sent out to those affected by the tragedy :cry:

when i first heard this, it really put me in a bad mood. gustemala is very close to my home country(Honduras)...it made me think about the people in my country...the structure of both countries is the same. what if something similar happens? last week, there was a litle earthquake, took place in a city nerby the one i uesd to live in....this is real scary! :stunned: