Mudslide death toll rises

The discovery of more than 130 bodies pushed the number of dead and missing in mudslides linked to Hurricane Stan to more than 1,000, as Guatemala’s Indian communities struggled today with the fact they must abandon the dead, give up traditional burial rites and declare many communities graveyards.

The first rescue teams reaching the isolated western township of Tacana, near the Mexico border, confirmed the death toll nationwide had risen to 652 with 384 missing.

Mudflows remained dangerously unstable. Another 129 people were killed in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico after a week of deadly rains.

Mayan Indians faced reconciling the conflicting demands of tradition – which demands the recovery of bodies and decent burial – with the shifting fields of mud and rotting corpses, which threatened disease and injury.

Experts “have advised us not to dig anymore because there is a great danger” that the still-soaked earth may collapse again, said Uvaldo Najera, a Tacana municipal employee.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum will travel to some of the hardest-hit villages, like Panabaj on the shores of Lake Atitlan, to hold consultations with Indian leaders on how to preserve traditional customs while keeping the living from being injured in attempts to recover the dead.

An estimated 250 people are still believed encased in vast mud flows in Panabaj.

Indians leaders say they are exhausted by the days spent digging for victims since the Wednesday mudslides, and they are worried about diseases from the decomposing corpses.

“Panabaj will no longer exist,” said Mayor Diego Esquina, referring to the hamlet covered by a mudflow a half-mile wide and as much as 15 to 20 feet thick. “We are asking that it be declared a cemetery. We are tired.

“The bodies are so rotted that they can no longer be identified. They will only bring disease.”

Many of the missing will simply be declared dead, and the ground they rest in declared hallowed ground. About 160 bodies have been recovered in Panabaj and nearby towns, and most have been buried in mass graves.

Promised sniffer dogs trained to detect bodies failed to arrive in time, and “we don’t even know where to dig anymore,” Esquina said.

Hundreds of Mayan villagers who had swarmed over the vast mudslides with shovels, picks and axes to dig for victims in previous days gave up their efforts Sunday, overwhelmed by the task.

Vice President Eduardo Stein said steps were being taken to give towns “legal permission to declare the buried areas cemeteries” as “a sanitary measure.”

As aid workers reached the most remote areas, details surfaced of how the storm had claimed lives.

In Tacana, about 12 miles from the Mexican border, a mudslide buried a building housing a shelter where about 100 people had taken refuge from rains and flooding.

The sensitivity of the Indian communities’ past – including tens of thousands of deaths at the hands of soldiers and death squads in the 1960-96 civil war - was clearly on display in Panabaj, where residents refused to even consider allowing troops in to help recover bodies.

Esquina said memories are still too vivid of a 1990 army massacre of 13 villagers on the same ground in Panabaj now covered by the mudslide.

“The people don’t want soldiers to come in here. They won’t accept it,” Esquina said.

Meanwhile, thousands of hungry and injured survivors mobbed helicopters delivering the first food aid to communities that have been cut off from the outside world for nearly a week.

Helicopters – including private craft and US Blackhawks and Chinooks – fanned out across the nation to evacuate the wounded and bring supplies to more than 100 communities.

Some communities along Guatemala’s Pacific coast have been cut off from the outside world for almost a week. When aid helicopters finally arrived on Sunday, hungry and desperate villagers grabbed wildly at bags of flour, rice and sugar.

Scores of foreign tourists were evacuated by foot and by helicopter from isolated communities ringing Lake Atitlan, a popular destination for US and European travellers. Some tourists had joined shoulder to shoulder with Mayan Indians to dig for missing victims.

Government helicopters landed in the nearby town of San Andres Semetabaj to evacuate an estimated 20 Scandinavian tourists trapped their since mudslides cut off the area several days ago.

About 50 more tourists were to hike out of the lakeside town of Panajachel, which also sits on Lake Atitlan, navigating mudslide-choked highways.

“We got about 400 (tourists) out last night, and we are expecting more today,” said Solomon Reyes of Guatemala’s Tourism Ministry.

US military helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo based at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras ran flights through dense clouds and heavy fog, delivering medical supplies and personnel and evacuating children needing medical care.

“We’re still in search-and-rescue mode,” said Army Major Bob Schmidt.