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The deceased and the missing are buried by a landslide that fell on about 150 houses in the village of Quejá, in the municipality of San Cristóbal Verapaz, in the department of Alta Verapaz, 205 km north of Guatemala City.
The president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei Falla, assured this Friday 6-N that the reports of various state bodies have realized that there are at least 150 people missing and died in three villages in the north of the country affected by the passage from the tropical Eta depression.
“We calculate that between the dead and the missing, the unofficial data, because we have not confirmed them, shows us about 150 dead,” the president said at a press conference held at the headquarters of the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (Conred).
The dead and missing are buried by a landslide that fell on about 150 houses in the village of Quejá, in the municipality of San Cristóbal Verapaz, in the department of Alta Verapaz, 205 kilometers north of Guatemala City.
Giammattei explained that it was only yesterday afternoon that “the members of the 5th Army Brigade arrived in Quejá and had to make the journey across the mountains, on foot, to get there”, given the weather conditions in the Central American country, where the rain continues north and east of the country.
In addition, in the neighboring villages of Chapenal and Saquixim there are a total of 120 people evacuated and a hundred houses flooded, as well as “many people who still do not want to leave their homes”, as the president indicated.
According to the president, about 2,500 people have lost all their belongings in the area of the three villages near San Cristóbal Verapaz “and the landslides continue”.
Officially, however, Guatemala has eight deaths from “Age” across the country and 18 have disappeared.
Thousands of casualties and hits
In total, the Eta tropical depression has affected 75,000 people in Guatemala according to data offered by the president this afternoon in his appearance before the media.
For his part, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, José Ángel López, indicated that “Eta” has affected the crops of at least 6,000 families and has estimated that there are about 3,100 hectares of damaged plantations.
But both the dead, the missing and the damage to homes and vegetables are only an estimate given the inaccessibility of some areas where the rescuers were not even able to arrive by helicopter due to the cloudiness and rain caused by “Eta”.
In addition, in the northern department of Peten and in Quiché, “second crops of maize and beans had just been planted in October and November and some of these new crops have been lost,” López said.
Giammattei insisted on the memories that the effects of ETA produced in the catastrophe of hurricane Mitch of the fifth category, which 22 years ago devastated the Central American region with its winds of more than 250 kilometers.
The passage of “Eta” in Guatemala towards the Caribbean Sea in the last few hours, already weakened after its advance through Nicaragua and Honduras, “reminded us very much of Mitch, a very slow system.” Eta “goes from 7 to 10 kilometers per hour. By collecting all the humidity and its own convection system causes it to collect the humidity and release it again”, the Director of Management analyzed.
“The ETA will continue its course towards the northeast and we will stop the rain for 72 hours, because a current comes from the east that will enter the country between Wednesday and Thursday”, added Giammattei, although this could change if the “band” weakens wet that would arrive next week.
The departments currently most affected by the ETA tropical depression are Izabal, Petén, Quiché, Alta Verapaz, Zacapa, El Progreso, Jutiapa and Santa Rosa, where yesterday the Cabinet of Ministers declared a state of calamity for the next 30 days (subject for approval by Congress).
Funds for the emergency
Giammattei announced that he will also ask for an exception measure for the department of Huehuetenango, west of Guatemala and adjacent to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, due to the damage and landslides recorded in the region.
He also said he helps with about 10,000 pounds of food in two American planes and a local plane went to the Izabal department this morning and added that they will later try to relocate the contribution to the north of the country, where the tragedy occurred in Alta. Verapaz.
Giammattei stressed that he will ask Congress for an emergency fund for the victims “fueled” by the royalties of the mining companies, in addition to asking for more than 25.7 million dollars in cash “raised by drug trafficking, organized crime and corruption., Which have been. extinct. “
In addition, he will demand that the more than $ 15.7 million in cash found weeks ago in a private home linked to former Communications Minister José Luis Benito, be also “quickly extinguished” by a judge to use for the emergency, “because I don’t think anyone claims them “, he concluded.
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