Frontera NorteSur
A vast entity, Baja California is exposed to varied natural disasters. Earthquakes rattle the ground, wild fires scar the hills and tropical storms lash the southern coasts. Fierce winter rains trapped thousands of residents earlier this year, prompting disaster declarations for Ensenada and Playas de Rosarito. Losing their rudimentary shelters, hundreds of people, principally seasonal farmworkers from southern Mexico, packed emergency centers in the agricultural export region of San Quintin.
On January 20, in Tijuana, torrential waters swept away two young children, six-year Tifany Virginia Cruz and her two-year-old brother Hector. The volunteer rescue group Desert Angels later recovered the bodies of the siblings on the US side of the border. A third member of the family, Aramis Muro Mendez, 10, was also killed in the tragic flash flood.
Potentially added to the natural disasters are man-made ones. The growing cities Tijuana and Mexicali contain plenty of big city hazards related to the shipment and use of toxic substances, while urban hospitals frequently attend gunshot wounds resulting from the gangland wars that jitter the landscape.
Despite the growing need for emergency services, first responders say they are in a budget squeeze.
In an interview with a Mexican reporter, Samuel Chavez Pelayo, chief of the Baja California Red Cross, said a funding crisis could result in the closure of Red Cross facilities in San Felipe and San Quintin. In 2009, the Red Cross was forced to shut down its San Felipe center for two weeks.
According to Chavez, the Baja Red Cross collected only about $100,000 in donations last year. He attributed the low contributions to the economic crisis. Private donations sustain much of the state Red Cross’ operations.
Routine medical costs are placing another strain on the Red Cross’ coffers. Salvador Gutierrez Gonzalez, president of the Red Cross’ Tijuana chapter, said the humanitarian organization’s hospital service recuperates only 25 percent of its expenses, mainly because of the inability of low-income patients to pay more for their treatment.
Although the Red Cross confronts hard times, the Baja branch was able to send six rescue personnel to Haiti. The state chapter plans on sending more relief to earthquake victims, including 50,000 tents for homeless Haitians. On the plus side, the Baja Red Cross counts a mobile hospital and advanced equipment like satellite communications.
Both Chavez and Gutierrez said they expected the budget situation to improve somewhat in 2010. Recently, Baja California Governor Jose Guadalupe Osuna donated about $100,000 to help support the Red Cross’ work.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico