Flowers That Go With Burgundy Dresses

corruption and deforestation cause mudslide disaster in Oaxaca Autonomous Authorities

by Kristin Bricker

On the morning of Tuesday 28 September the world awoke to the news that a landslide had buried land 80% of Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca, a town of 10,000 people. Weeping Tlahuitoltepec officials told reporters that around 300 to 500 people may have been buried under the mud, while the Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz placed the number of potential deaths "up to 1.000". The federal government deployed soldiers and federal police to the area, and even the United States offered its assistance in digging Tlahuitoltepec residents.
When rescuers arrived Tlahuitoltepec after more than ten hours of delay by the poor condition of roads in the state, they realized that the landslide was not as bad as they thought. The avalanche left eleven dead.

Disaster Predictably, highlighting the fatal consequences of the notorious corruption present in the state's public works.

Deforestation

The 2010 hurricane season has caused record rainfall in southern Mexico, resulting in floods, landslides, and deaths in several states, including Oaxaca.

A report published by the Council of Mineral Resources of the federal government in 2001, warned that as a result of deforestation, is regularly Tlahuitoltepec large landslides during hurricane season. The report, entitled "Natural Hazards", warned that landslides in Tlahuitoltepec tend to affect both roads, as the houses. The government has done nothing to solve the problem of landslides in Tlahuitoltepec, where residents live on hillsides.

The mudslide that shocked the world on September 28 did not happen overnight. The mud began to creep on September 13, causing the walls of nearby houses began to agrietare landslide at the time the earth began to move. At that time, Civil Protection told the mayor that the town was evacuated. However, neither the state nor federal government seems to have helped in the evacuation, even the residents were offered shelter Tlahuitoltepec. It was only after local officials apparently exaggerated the extent of the landslide on 28 September that the state police began escorting residents Tlahuitoltepec.

As rescue crews assessed the situation in the Mixe Indian region (which is located Tlahuioltepec), they will decide whether to evacuate 30,000 people. "In that area during heavy rains. The ground is unstable and could be more landslides," said Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz to El Universal. "It is better to act, because anything can happen."

Oaxaca Highway paved with corruption

Unfortunately, Governor Ruiz decided to act only when Tlahuitoltepec officials exaggerated the Sept. 28 runoff. Local authorities have warned the state government that landslides could cause a humanitarian catastrophe, since August when they complained that 50% of roads in the region were damaged. "If not repaired, we run the risk that many people would be completely inaccessible in the coming days," said state Rep. Floriberto Vásquez Vásquez, the state government and the press. The state government ignored their pleas.

On September 8, warnings Vasquez became a reality. That day, an official the state of Oaxaca reported that 80% of 22.000 km of state highways were damaged by landslides and poor quality of buildings, held incommunicado for more than thirty communities outside world. The mixes was one of the most affected regions.

roads and landing strips of Oaxaca (CAO), the state agency responsible for road construction and maintenance of Oaxaca, responded to concerns about the deplorable road conditions, saying that could not be repaired because no budget had more money . Daily, a newspaper in Oaxaca who openly supports the ruling party of state, wrote in an opinion piece:

"... Are striking statements of officials of CAO in the sense that" no resources "to fix 80 percent of damaged roads have now Oaxaca, but then one wonders why the CAO holds an annual ... subejercicio millionaire resources. That gentlemen, is called incompetence. If there are dozens of communities cut off by landslides and the road network desgalamiento is a priority to manage the money as is necessary to remedy the situation .... It audits need to be done ... because it happens that, despite the release of resources, they do not reach those affected most of the time ... What Whose hands are left? "

Complaints about corruption in road projects and other projects in Oaxaca are adiaro.'s suspicions arising from the high costs and poor results. Some roads are crumbling in cuentón of months.

Public officials often give no-bid construction contracts to friends and party colleagues. The citizens suspect that funds many of these contracts are used to finance political campaigns. Such is the case in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, where Jesus Mortera Hiram financed his campaign for municipal office with earnings from public works projects. Two mayors was granted on most public works contracts in the city. The government is carrying out an audit of the two former mayors for alleged misappropriation of funds through construction projects Mortera. Of particular concern is the "rehabilitation" of a four-lane road Mortera in Salina Cruz. The road has collapsed three times since the "rehabilitation" that made Mortera.

So far nobody has shown that politicians and contractors Oaxaca embezzle money from road projects using inexpensive materials and pocketing the difference. In 2008, State auditors concluded that Carlos Alberto Ramos Aragon used a project to build a boulevard to embezzle money when he served as mayor of Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, but never found out exactly how: Ramos Aragón simply not delivered the receipts to the auditors. Ramos Aragon was never punished for this alleged embezzlement. He currently serves as director of the Institute of Civil Protection of the State of Oaxaca, one of the agencies in charge of rescue efforts in Tlahuitoltepec.

Although details on how the politicians misappropriate money for road projects are complete or are vague with no evidence of a recent scandal in the federal program "Strong Flats," shows how many Oaxacan suspect that the contractors and the politicians are stealing money from road projects. The federal government provides funds to states like Oaxaca through the project "cement floors, concrete floors to install in homes with dirt floors. The federal government calculates the amount of cement that is sent to the states, based on the amount and size of households receiving the new apartments through this program. In Guerrero, another state that receives cement through "cement floors, an audit found that federal state and local politicians diluted donated cement with sand, which is cheaper, so unless it was necessary to install concrete floors. The beneficiaries were left with low-quality flats, while local politicians sold the excess cement. Guerrero politicians and contractors had misappropriated $ 149 million dollars through fraud, according to federal audit.

Some Oaxacan communities are demanding a similar audit of the "cement floors in your state. The residents say that local politicians are using the same scheme to offer less cement to beneficiaries, and that politicians excess cement exchange for votes. Furious residents say politicians also paid to workers by the installation of soil than half of what the federal government has budgeted for their wages, and that politicians are pocketing the other half.

While audits have not yet discovered embezzlement schemes related to the materials used to build poorly constructed road course in Oaxaca, the projects "ghosts" of roads are common. Ghosts in the projects, the government pays for a road to be built or paved. Local officials say the project was completed and collected the money, but in reality the project even starts. Only last August, the federal government dismissed nine officials for embezzling Oaxaca $ 930,000 pesos by the ghosts of roads projects. In April, authorities in sixty communities in San Juan Mixtepec marched in protest of alleged embezzlement of funds from the mayor of $ 10 million dollars in federal funds through ghost projects of roads, bridges and water projects.

The consequences of corruption and misappropriation of funds in public works is costly and deadly, as evidenced by the Tlahuitoltepec disaster. Exaggerated reports about the magnitude of the landslide circulated for more than ten hours before the first rescue teams could reach the devastated town, located just two hours from the city of Oaxaca. The first rescue team arrived on foot because roads were impassable. Heavy equipment such as bulldozers came much later. While the world watched in horror as roads and collapsed bridges delayed rescuers and equipment, no one in Oaxaca was surprised because the bad conditions of roads have become a fact of everyday life.

While the massive loss of life seems to have been avoided in Tlahuitoltepec, land runoff should serve as a warning to state and federal government, that greater oversight and accountability accounts are necessary to avoid a future catastrophe.