Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Historic Earthquake Shakes Mexico

An urgent action has been called by Section 22 of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) to organize relief brigades for the regions devastated by last night’s earthquake.

Tre Kwon

September 8, 2017
Facebook Twitter Share

In their statement, the teacher’s union called on its 83,000 members to “answer the call to work with municipal authorities and the community toward rescuing survivors, popular aid, the transport of wounded, and the removal of debris.” Claudio Escobar, 20-year-old student at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City said, “Those of us who have family there or know people there are seeking ways to aid them.”

terremoto.jpg

At about 11:55 pm on Thursday, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake shook Mexico and extended to parts of Central America. The southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca–second and third poorest in the country–were hardest hit, where thousands are missing and dozens have been killed. So far, 25 of the over 34 reported dead were from Oaxaca, with at least 17 in the city of Juchitan. The people have braced themselves against the aftershocks–266 and counting– that have followed.

“This situation is clearly not a question of where the earthquake originated, but rather the clearcut conditions of class. Those with the least are most affected by this ‘natural’ phenomenon,” said Sergio Moissen, Oaxaca-born teacher and member of the Movimiento de Trabajadores Socialistas.

terremoto1.jpg

“In Mexico City we felt a strong shake, which we realized only later was an earthquake. A group of us took cover in the center of the neighborhood. In the midst of the tremors, the elders gathered among us said they felt a return of the spectre of ‘85, the year of the great earthquake that plunged Mexico City into chaos and destroyed hundreds of homes.”

In the moments immediately following, close to two million people lost electricity and phone service was almost entirely suspended. There was heavy damage to highways, electrical infrastructure, and commercial and residential construction. The urban landscape was split asunder–cracked pavement and fallen shopping malls. Rivers overflowed, waking people to their flooded homes.

terremoto4.jpg

In the city of Juchitan, Oaxaca, antique buildings were reduced to rubble. According to the New York Times, “The regional hospital, a church dedicated to the city’s patron saint, San Vicente Ferrer, and half of the city’s nineteenth-century city hall collapsed…Hospital staff managed to evacuate the patients in time and treated them by the light of their cellphones through the night in an empty lot.”

The immediate response by the federal government was to minimize the damage in Chiapas and Oaxaca, with declarations by Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong falsely reassuring the public. These nonchalant statements come in direct contradiction with acute damage and devastation for vulnerable communities on the ground. “Wood-frame homes made of adoquín and metal roofs were most affected–that is, the homes of those with the least. These are areas with higher concentrations of people who are dedicated to the production and sale of agricultural products, older generations–people who are 70, 80 years old whose only means are what they make of their parcels and what they can sell,” said Moissen.

Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero have the largest populations of indigenous people and are the poorest states in the country. There, the governments of the PRi, PAN and PRD have been protagonists of a history of coercion and olvido (forgetting), overseeing the persisting conditions suffered by millions: no right to education, lacking healthcare, and scarcity of decent work. While the government is continuously updating the world on the rising death count, government aid has yet to reach these parts.

terremoto5.jpg

“While this is reminiscent of the earthquake of 1985, today we are seeing a peculiarity: through official lines, CNTE Section 22 has called for civic brigades to rescue, send aid, and create supply centers for medical equipment, gauze, and antibiotics. This demonstrates that, while the government has sold off our natural resources, cheapened our labor, and is eliminating our public health and education, the workers and poor must take charge and respond to these natural disasters.”

Facebook Twitter Share

Tre Kwon

Tre is a writer and editor for Left Voice. She is a nurse and member of NYSNA.

Latin America

Alfredo Cisneros, Mexican land defender from Michoacán, stands in a forest. He is the fifth land defender to be murdered in the country in 2023.

Alfredo Cisneros: Fifth Mexican Environmentalist Assassinated in 2023

Alfredo Cisneros Madrigal, indigenous leader and forest defender in Michoacán, Mexico was murdered on February 23. He is the fifth environmental defender to be murdered in the country so far this year.

Axomalli Villanueva

March 13, 2023

Lula Visits Biden to Repair Relations with U.S. Imperialism

Brazilian President Lula's U.S. visit shows that he's focused on maintaining the interests of Brazilian capital while aligning with U.S. imperialism and being careful not to alienate Beijing.

Caio Reis

February 16, 2023

SOUTHCOM Chief Aims to Increase Imperialist Plunder of Latin America’s Resources

U.S. Southern Command Chief Laura Richardson has expressed interest in lithium and other natural resources in South America. It shows the country’s commitment to corporate profits at the expense of workers, Indigenous people, and the environment.

Luigi Morris

January 26, 2023

The Peruvian Uprising: Massive Protests Demand the Fall of the Coup Regime and a Constituent Assembly

Peru has erupted in a massive uprising demanding that President Dina Boluarte resign, that the current Congress be shut down, and that a new constitution be established. The protests are the culmination of years of political oppression of the country’s indigenous communities, drastic poverty rates and precarity for Peru’s workers and poor, and a political regime that continues the legacy of Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship.

MOST RECENT

A group of protesters, in the front of whom are a line of protesters wearing red vests. In the front right corner, a white sign reds "vive la retraite," with a skeleton wearing a red hat in the middle of the sign on a black background with a text bubble on its left that reads, "oiv a bosse, c'est pas pour en crever!"

“French March”: The Right to Revolutionary Optimism

Evoking memories of '68, the students enter the fight against Macron. In our chaotic world, the future can only be built in the streets.

Eduardo Castillo

March 26, 2023

Joe Biden Is Deporting Russians Who Escaped Putin’s Draft — Let Them All In!

The United States is deporting Russians who sought asylum following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a heinous attack against war resisters and shows that the proxy war in Ukraine is about capitalist rivalry first and foremost.

Sam Carliner

March 26, 2023

On Monday, Germany Will Experience a “Mega-Strike”

On March 27, German railway workers and public sector employees will shut down the whole country. All trains are being canceled. Airports, freeways, hospitals, and daycare centers will all be affected.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 25, 2023

France: On the Frontlines of the War Against Austerity

The French masses have raised the banner of class struggle in what is becoming the first major battle against austerity after the pandemic. Working people across the world should pay attention.

James Dennis Hoff

March 25, 2023