Contributed by Rich Basas of FPA's Migration Blog:
The Mexican regions of Tabasco and Chiapas this past weekend suffered from yet another global environmental shock with severe flooding causing major evacuations of nearly 28,000 people from Villahermosa and surrounding cities in the Southern regions of Mexico leaving 800,000 homeless. Local and national police and military assisted in the evacuation and provided medical support during the weekend tragedy. While well-coordinated with their best efforts, people were still stranded on rooftops as a common scene from New Orleans now taking place in Southern Mexico. Despite the horrific nature of the natural events, the coordination of Mexican services in aiding their citizenry was commendable and despite the massive evacuations in the region, only one victim was noted in Tabasco and many others in the poorer region of Chiapas.
This past year has seen more than flooding in Mexico. The newly elected President Felipe Calderon has met many environmental challenges since taking office in 2007. The Mexican petroleum sector, one of Mexico's main sources of revenue, took many environmental hits with two hurricanes passing through the area of the Gulf of Mexico this past summer where much of Mexico's oil and gas reserves reside. During the first hurricane nearly eight oil workers were killed, and learning from that incident, preparations were made well in advance of hurricanes that followed in the summer of 2007. Fires in Southern California also threatened Mexico two weeks ago where affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles and San Diego were set ablaze.
With the traditional role for the new Presidents of Mexico since the 80's being the stabilization of the economy, curbing corruption, reducing the drug trade and exporting Mexico's manufactured goods, the environment has become an unwelcome problem which is dominating much of the attention of the media this year in Mexico and abroad. While pollution and the environment has always plagued Mexico and its cities, it never swallowed up whole municipalities or destroyed Mexico's oil production and tourist resources. Not since the earthquake in 1985 has a Mexican city seen so much destruction. The only saving grace is that the authorities seem fairly well prepared to deal with such a disaster, or at least better prepared than the Bush Administration during Hurricane Katrina in the U.S.
