Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guatemala City (Fides Service) - Guatemala, the central American country which hosted CAM 2, the second American Mission Congress in 2003 and which for years has struggled to eliminate violence, now faces the consequences of the violence of nature. At the beginning of last week thousands of people were made homeless and at least a hundred were killed by the fury of Hurricane Stan. Official sources say 421 towns and 133,912 people have been affected. The death toll of 652 is expected to rise. Whole communities are feared to have perished; several villages are still isolated while rescue efforts are prevented by bad weather conditions.
After three days of heavy rain a masse of mud slid down the side of Toliman volcano smothering the village of Panabaj, Santiago Atitlan district, killing 1,400 people as they slept. “No one survived - said government spokesman Mario Cruz -. The people of Panabaj were buried alive under twelve metres of mud ”.
According to local civil protection units thousands of people are displaced and dozens of villages and towns such as Sibinal, Tacanà, San Marcos are isolated. As times passes there is growing concern for outbreaks of disease with bodies of people and animals still under the mud.
The Guatemalan Ambassador to the Holy See told Fides that Catholics are providing assistance in more than 300 centres. In his homily on Sunday 9 October Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño called for “Solidarity without frontiers” calling on all the people of Guatemala to help their brothers and sisters in need. A missionary nun said religious institutes in the stricken area have opened their houses to the homeless. Catholic school children are collecting funds for the hurricane victims. Caritas Guatemala and diocesan Caritas offices are organising shelter and assistance for the homeless families in parishes. Public buildings, churches and army centres have been made into centres for collecting supplies of food, clothing, medicines, water and blankets which keep arriving from all over the country. The international community is also responding generously: offers of aid have come from Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, United States, Spain, Cuba and Switzerland.
In a letter sent to Fides Archbishop Francisco Perez national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain expressed his solidarity with earthquake victims in Asia and hurricane affected peoples in central America, promising assistance and calling for generous solidarity to help the stricken peoples: “the Pontifical Mission Societies Spain call on everyone to be united in grief and prayer and to offer financial aid for the victims” .
The Guatemalan government has declared a state of emergency: “The situation is tragic, the dimensions of the disaster cannot be calculated” said president of Guatemala Oscar Berger at a media conference. Hurricane Stan also struck Salvador (63 people dead), south east Mexico (24 dead), Nicaragua (11 dead). (RZ) (Agenzia Fides 10/10/2005, righe 45, parole 617)
