wfn.org | Resort Areas in Mexico Get Enough Attention,

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

19-November-1997 
97444 
 
    Resort Areas in Mexico Get Enough Attention, 
    So Presbyterians Target Hurricane Relief to Poorer Areas 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Critical of the flurry of post-hurricane recovery efforts 
focused  on tourist centers such as Acapulco, U.S. and Mexican church 
leaders are pushing to get relief into rural and coastal areas of Mexico 
populated by indigenous people and other subsistence farmers. 
 
    Hurricane Pauline slapped Mexico's Pacific coast in early October with 
100-miles-per-hour winds that left nearly 300,000 people homeless and 
killed more than 200 others.  The International Red Cross reports that 
2,000 people are still missing. 
 
    "We're starting with the reconstruction of houses of cartons and wood. 
Later, we'll go back and do more solid reconstructions," said the Rev. Saul 
Pulido, president of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (NPCM), 
which is headquartered in Mexico City. "Damage to the churches we're 
repairing with straw and sticks. 
 
     "People need economic help," he said.  "The government has focused 
more on the zone with Acapulco and the new tourist center in Guerrero." 
People in the poor regions, Pulido added, "are left to try to help 
themselves." 
 
    Church World Service (CWS), the relief arm of the National Council of 
Churches (NCC) in New York City, and Action by Churches Together (ACT) 
International, the World Council of Churches' and Lutheran World 
Federation's joint relief agency in Geneva, are working jointly to raise 
$800,000 for post-Pauline recovery.  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) 
in Louisville has committed $10,000 to that fund so far. 
 
    CWS dollars will be sent directly to Costa Chica Presbytery, a 
presbytery of indigenous people; the Guerrense Council, a social 
organization of native people; the Social Pastoral Ministry of the Diocese 
and Caritas of the Archdiocese of Oaxaca; The Good Shepherd First 
Evangelical Baptist Church in Miahuatl n; Human Rights Indigenous 
Organizations, a self-development organization; and the Forum of Civil 
Organizations in the state of Oaxaca, an association of 36 nongovernmental 
organizations working in diverse ministries,  serving street children, 
popular education, sexual health and the promotion of human rights. 
 
    There are five NPCM presbyteries within the states of Guerrero and 
Oaxaca, the regions hardest hit by the hurricane. 
 
    "We're trying to concentrate at the present moment on pure 
emergencies," said the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, the NCC's liaison to Mexico, who 
said much of the rebuilding is being done by residents. "Some have lost all 
their belongings.  Others lost part of a house.  And in the indigenous 
communities there's no savings in the bank.  There's nothing like that. 
And some lost crops and need to plant again." 
 
    Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team member the Rev. Francisco 
Velazquez-Rodriguez of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, said the damage he saw 
recently in Mexico is similar to that of Hurricane Hugo, which tore up the 
eastern coast of Puerto Rico a few years ago.  He said the government has 
begun reopening washed-out roads and reconnecting utilities, but at least 
two communities that he visited are still a "total disaster." 
 
    In St. Bartholomew de Laxicha in Oaxaca, close to the Guerrero coast, 
through which the eye of the hurricane passed, 440 of 500 homes were 
destroyed.  "And 100-plus of those homes," Velazquez-Rodriguez said, 
"belong to people from the [Presbyterian] church." 
 
    Velazquez-Rodriguez went to Mexico on behalf of PDA to assess how the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) might assist the relief work already under way 
in the NPCM. 
 
     The St. Paul Presbyterian Church there, he said, intends to have 10 
homes rebuilt by early January.  The congregation has also organized a 
medical team that works in devastated parts of the region. 
 
    To date, CWS has bought 18,000 blankets and is intending to use other 
monies to buy shovels, pickaxes, hammers and saws, as well as powdered milk 
and other staples to help families through the initial crisis. 
 
    "They need food and clothing and, if possible, water and medicines. ... 
The church has a great opportunity there to witness to the love of Christ," 
said Velazquez-Rodriguez, adding that the extent of the disaster may compel 
more cooperation in the historically tense relationship between the Roman 
Catholic Church in Mexico and Protestant denominations there, including the 
NPCM. 
 
    PDA coordinator Susan Ryan told the Presbyterian News Service she is 
expecting emergency response requests back from NPCM presbyteries later 
this week -- and she anticipates that the PC(USA), the United Methodist 
Church and the Disciples of Christ will be sending volunteer work teams to 
Mexico to help with rebuilding. 
 
    "The time delay has [been necessary] to work within the broader 
strategy of the NPCM," Ryan said.  "We can't go everywhere," she added, 
considering the extent of the hurricane's damage. Ryan said the NPCM will 
help U.S. churches target particular communities for assistance. 
 
    "We're trying to see the whole picture and do what we can," said 
Bolioli, who is critical of the priority received by resort areas for 
government and international assistance to, as he puts it, allow for an 
uninterrupted tourist season, while more rural areas fend for themselves. 
 
    "We decided to help in areas that we know received very little," he 
said.  "We decided to help the most vulnerable people, with no economic 
means to recuperate." 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 
  mailed from World Faith News <wfn-news@wfn.org>  

--