Political Crisis in Guatemala Grinds Country to a Halt

All major, and many minor, roads blocked; gasoline, diesel and propane shortages; commercial food markets closed or empty; occasional violent confrontations with generally peaceful protesters; threats to close the international airport. The results of a political crisis created by efforts to illegally overturn the Guatemalan presidential elections held in August.

It seems that Guatemala rarely makes the international news for anything good. While the story of Guatemala’s current civil strife did garner some world attention initially, it’s now being overwhelmed by the events in the Middle East. I think probably deserves more attention than it is getting.

What happened?

On August 20^th, Dr. Bernardo Arévalo overwhelmingly won the second, run-off, round of the 2023 Guatemalan presidential elections. Winning more than 60% of the national vote he became the president-elect. He is slated to take office on January 14^th, 2024.

Guatemala has more than twenty recognized national political parties. Each picks its own presidential candidate to run in the first round of presidential elections. If no candidate wins greater than a 50% majority of nationwide votes, a run-off election is held between the top two candidates. The Movimiento Semilla, Arévalo’s political party, is a relative newcomer and was vastly underestimated by the major parties. At the end of the first round, Arévalo had placed second in vote totals and qualified for the run-off.

As a center-left reform politician, Arévalo’s popularity and appearance in the run-off election was something of a surprise to the previous right-wing governing political parties. Having long controlled the national political scene and much of the national press, many observers believe the ruling parties fell victim to believing their own press releases and self-published polling.

_{(Right: Dr. Bernardo Arévalo, President-Elect of Guatemala)}

Manufacturing a Political Crisis

When the results of the first election were made public, the nine right-wing political parties were shocked. Banding together, they demanded the election be declared fraudulent and took their case to court. They alleged that, six years ago, Semilla submitted fraudulent signatures with their 2017 application to be recognized as a political party. (A flimsy case, impossible to prove, but whose investigation could be made to last months, if not years.) The parties asked for Semilla to be suspended from participating in the final round of elections pending this “investigation”. At first the courts did indeed suspend Semilla, relenting only when the Supreme Court vacated the suspension. Arévalo went on to win in an election that official observers from the United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States and the U.S. called fair and without significant fraud.

After the election the current Attorney General Consuelo Porras and her investigators, upped the ante. Porras ordered police raids of Semilla‘s offices and the National Election Court, illegally seizing documents and ballot boxes in an effort to “prove” that there was voter fraud involved in Arévalo’s election. Porras, reportedly a friend of out-going President Alejandro Giammattei, is currently under U.S. sanctions both for anti-democratic activities and interference in anti-corruption investigations in Guatemala.

The People Take to the Streets

Porras’s raids sparked an immediate political and constitutional crisis. Earlier actions against Arévalo and Semilla had produced many protests and the occasional roadblock. Bloqueos (roadblocks) are an oft used protest tactic in Guatemala and usually only last a day or two. Generally they are a minor inconvenience that generate little notice. This quickly became different.

Activist groups representing the indigenous Maya and Xinka peoples, who make up a large part of the population, banded together with groups representing the poor, calling for a general strike and setting up fourteen Bloqueos around the country in strategic areas. The protests quickly spread, with many other groups and even local government officials joining in. Now there are nearly two hundred such bloqueos, barricading most of the transportation in the country. The general population has been very supportive, either joining in or feeding and otherwise supporting the protesters. Some in our local area have been walking along the road carrying food to the truck drivers who have been stranded along the main highway from Mexico.

Until last night, the protests have all been peaceful. Little violence has occurred and has largely been directed at the protesters by individuals or small groups trying to run the blockades or provoke trouble. I encountered one of those groups yesterday while walking on the road near our offices. Several men on motorcycles had grouped up together with baseball bats, clubs and pieces of lumber, a block or so away from a bloqueo. They were very focused on the bloqueo, but when two National Police pickup trucks arrived, the group immediately turned and rode away together.

The protesters have tried to organize the roadblocks to have minimal impact on emergency services and the poor. Allowed to pass:

The sick and people with medical appointments
Health care workers
Fire, police and military personnel
Foreigners with flights leaving the country
Pickup trucks with vegetables and basic grains to feed local populations (only at night)

Because there have been a few instances of the vital services being refused passage, the notice above was sent out via social media again this morning.

The President Speaks

President Alejandro Giammattei appeared on national television last night to address the political crisis. His message was not well received. Refusing to directly address the concerns or demands of the protesters, he blamed the protests instead on unspecified foriegn actors and just a few Guatemalans. Giammattei claimed the the protests were illegal and not supported by most Guatemalans. He threatened the arrest of the protest leaders. Giamatti said that there isn’t a Coup d’état, since Arévalo hasn’t become president yet, but statd he would leave office on January 14th. The president also claimed the protests were NOT nonviolent, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Coincidentally, within minutes of his speech a large group of masked people emerged from the crowds in Guatemala City and began breaking windows, looting, setting fires and even throwing stones at fire engines responding to the scene. They accosted police and protesters alike, injuring at least two police officers and an unknown number of demonstrators. Police responded with tear gas and riot gear. Even the government called the rioters “infiltrators”. They did not attempt to claim they were part of the protest movement.

The leaders of the 48 Cantones indigenous Maya group replied today. They vowed to remain in the streets until the Attorney General resigns or is removed from office, along with her lead investigator and judge. 48 Cantones is one of the major leaders of the protest movement.

How This Crisis Affects AMEDICAusa and What Comes Next

We are not a political or governmental organization and pose no threat, nor have direct ties, to either side. That alone should keep us above the fray and out of any immediate danger.

I, and the other in-country volunteers are fine and secure. We have made provisions for the next few weeks and have plans should the situation deteriorate and become threatening. We remain ready to assist any of our fire department friends in an emergency as needed, and as we can.

Obviously, this has impacted our more routine activities, cancelled meetings, classes, fire station visits and the like. The fuel situation is critical and we are limited to what is currently in our vehicles, so the day to day office and household things are limited to what we can carry while walking. We cook with an eye toward saving the propane available, since supplies are limited. Water is not yet a problem.

As to current and future events, I have no crystal ball. We are located far from Guatemala City in a relatively rural department. The vast majority of the people I come in contact with are very sympathetic to the protesters, participating in the protests or actively helping them. Even the couple of truck drivers we have helped, who are stranded here, are supportive of the protests, though eager to get home. I have not met a single Guatemalan locally is is vehemently opposed to them, though some complain about the inconvenience the bloqueos cause. Should the Government attempt to carry through with the threat of mass arrests and forcibly removing the bloqueos, things could get dicey pretty fast.

That said, there are videos and posts this morning on social media showing Policía Nacional helicopters landing and unloading unspecified cargo to heavily armed officers in Totonicopan, near the offices of 48 Cantones.

Frankenstein & Coffee Beans

Why Should We Donate an Ambulance to San Carlos Alzatate?

It started your as a typical lame firefighter joke. While visiting the fire station of San Carlos Alzatate, Guatemala, I innocently asked what year their ambulance was… “Which part?” they replied. As it turns out, the sole ambulance of Alzatate is something of a Shelleyan monster built from of the corpses of other dead vehicles.

“Like Frankenstein?” I asked, laughing… and a new nickname was born.

_{A tongue-in-cheek logo for San Carlos Alzatate’s Ambulance}

The major parts of the body came from a mid-eighties Toyota van that still bears the scars of a roll-over accident in an earlier life. The motor is from an anonymous Datsun found in an auto graveyard. The windows, bumpers and other body attachments were likewise grafted on to the vehicle in various automotive transplant surgeries. There is more Bondo than metal. Even the Emergency lights appear to have once served as a half of a light bar from another emergency vehicle. All it lacks is a lightning rod to jump start it.

The firefighters managed to raise 900 Quetzales last year (about $116 usd), enough to have a little body work done and get it painted white by a local man with a spray gun. Like makeup on Frankenstein’s monster, it does not hide the scars. The tires are bald and undersized, the suspension worn out and sagging. When it rains, it can no longer climb the few paved streets in town, much less the rock and mud tracks that lead to the municipality’s rural villages.

But the firefighters are proud to have anything at all. If they can’t reach the patient with the ambulance, they will bring the patient to the ambulance. Even when it means carrying people several miles over rocky roads strapped to their one backboard.

Getting to the Ambulance is only the beginning of the adventure…

San Carlos Alzatate is a medium sized town (pop. 23,000) in the remote mountains of the Jalapa Department, on the slopes of the volcano that shares its name. The people are largely indigenous Xinka (pronounced Sheenka). They are POOR, with over 85% living in poverty. Most are subsistence farmers. The largest part of their annual cash income comes from working the coffee plantations during the three month winter harvest season. Coffee is the only real “industry” in the area.

What little health care they have is provided during the day by the Clinica Salud, a government run family practice clinic with little in the way of supplies or medicines. Anything more serious, and any emergency, requires transport to the hospital in Jutiapa… well over an hour away…ON A GOOD DAY.

There are not many good days.

There are two routes into or out of Alzatate. Pavement is non-existent on either road, In fact the word “road” is a generous description. The southwest road is rarely wider than single lane, rocky, muddy, steep and very windy. It requires fording two rivers to pass. Yup, fording… driving through, not around, the shallow rivers. In times of heavy rain, which is often, the route becomes impassable without four wheel drive and the skills to go with it. We came in this way, with the AMEDICA-mobile, and will not do so again. (We kind of like having the differential and oil pan attached to the car). The northeast “road” isn’t any better. Though without the rivers to ford, it is extremely steep, often muddy, and a harrowing trip without a 4×4.

Doing so in a 35 year old, two wheel drive, ambulance assembled from used spare parts, at night, in the rain, with bald tires is a little frightening.

There is Dedication, then there is well… Alzatate Dedication

The life of a firefighter is never easy, but here in Alzatate it is an order of magnitude more difficult. The city pays the five firefighter’s salaries (about $300 usd a month for a 24-on, 24-off schedule without additional days off.) and allows them the use of a former small elementary school for a station, but not much else. What firefighting equipment they have was provided by the national firefighting association, ASONBOMD, (a few extinguishers and two SCBA) and a donation from AMEDICAusa (Helmets, turnouts, boots and more SCBA).

Firefighters here have no fire engine, but rely on the “Frankenlance”, assorted ABC and CO² fire extinguishers and bucket brigades for structural fires and a handful of hand-me-down tools for wildland fires. EMS supplies are purchased through the fundraising efforts of the firefighters themselves, who must often spend part of their shift and days off trying to elicit small donations from passers-by on the main road. They would like to build an auxiliary corps of volunteers, but the expense and difficulties in send prospective volunteers to Guatemala City for training is beyond their means.

EMS supplies are purchased through the fundraising efforts of the firefighters themselves, who must often spend part of their shift and days off trying to elicit small donations from passers-by on the main road.
_{Fire Chief Erick Najera & firefighter stand at the main entrance into town collecting donations from passing motorists and pedestrians. This is also what keeps the doors open and the lights on .}

A Firefighter’s life

Twenty six year old Fire chief Erick Najera is a prime example of the firefighter’s life in remote Guatemala. Sitting over cups of local coffee in his modest home, he shared a little of his story with us. (The coffee, home roasted, and stone ground, is phenomenally good. Interested in coffee from San Carlos Alzatate? Let us know .)

The son of a campesino (farm worker), he, his wife and newborn son still live in the old adobe home in a nearby aldea (village) along with their extended family. He managed to finish high school, doing an enlistment as an infantryman in Guatemala’s army. (No small feat in a country whose rural children rarely progress beyond 6th grade before leaving to work in the fields.) He proudly displays the certificate and small medal he received while training with the U.S. Special Forces during his time in the military.

On his discharge from the army, Najera returned home to Alzatate and came into contact with the local comité, a group of local business men and government officials, who were trying to start a new fire company in town. Erick wanted to serve. He began the arduous process of training to become not only a firefighter, but an officer as well. He travelled to distant Guatemala City to attend the required classes at the ASONBOMD fire academy. With nothing in his pocket, still trying to provide for his family and organize the new department at the same time, it took five long years.

In 2019, the 119 Company of Alzatate received it’s certification from ASONBOMD. It became the newest of the sparsely scattered 250 official fire companies in Guatemala, and Comandante Najera is at its helm. They provide fire/rescue services not only to the town but also to the surrounding villages and hamlets. They must struggle daily to reach their people who live in this remote region.

AMEDICAusa’s effort to Donate an Ambulance to Alzatate

Unfortunately, the trials of the firefighters in Alzatate are not unique in Guatemala. AMEDICAusa has long been supporting the fire companies who provide emergency services in the most hazardous country in the world. San Carlos Alzatate is but one, and each presents its own challenges.

The chief obstacle in Alzatate is its terrain and primitive roads. While we can’t fix the roads, we can search for and donate a vehicle that will suit their specific needs. We need your help. We are seeking one (or more, we have other companies that could really use them) 4×4 ambulance(s) that might be available for donation. The vehicle would hopefully be:

Four Wheel Drive
Of a common make that would not present a huge parts availability problem.
In good enough condition to allow immediate use in the field
Be diesel powered. Gasoline is expensive in Central America, Diesel a little less so.

If you have or know of one that is available, contact us at AMEDICAusa. There may be significant tax advantages to private parties/companies for their donation.

Hurricane Eta Leaves Guatemala Reeling

Hurricane Eta slows to tropical storm and dumps two feet of rain in parts of Guatemala. UPDATE: Hurricane Iota Now Predicted to Strike Central America As Category 5 Storm

Aldea Quejá (al-DAY-a kay-HA) was a sleepy little village of some three hundred or so homes, situated along an unimproved dirt track, high in the mountains of Guatemala’s Department of Alta Verapaz. It boasted a small rural elementary school, a soccer field, a Catholic Church and two smaller, storefront evangelical churches… and not much else. Its people are largely campesinos – agricultural workers, who toil on small farms, or workers in small shops and stalls selling local produce and odds and ends.

On Thursday, November 5th, the village of Quejá ceased to exist.

It started raining on Saturday. Not abnormal, it is the rainy season here in Guatemala, and a little two-hour rainstorm in the afternoon is the rule. But this one didn’t stop. In fact, it began to rain harder and harder. For days. Torrents of rain.

By Wednesday the “highway” was more river than road. The three small gentle mountain springs that provided the village with water were raging torrents. And still it rained. Hard.

On Thursday, at about 1 p.m., the mountain above the town all but collapsed. A deadly slurry of hundreds of thousands of tons of mud, rock, trees and water cascaded down on Quejá burying the unfortunate and leaving the rest homeless and many miles from the nearest support.

Rain and Road Washouts Hamper Rescue Efforts

News of the landslide reached the nearest emergency responders, Company 86 of Guatemala’s Volunteer Firefighter Corps (CVB), in San Cristóbal Verapaz , a little later.

On a good day the drive from their little fire station to the village takes well over an hour. Though only about 15 miles road miles away, even the main roads in this part of Guatemala are tortuous, steep and windy. This was not a good day.

Fire Company 86 was forced to abandon their vehicles on the main highway and attempted to reach the village, about 2 miles further, on foot. They ascended a steep, mud-slicked track and slogged through mud sometimes chest deep. Footing was so difficult that they frequently resorted to ropes to haul themselves over – or through – the obstacles. Military units were responding from a second direction. Neither group was able to reach the village before treacherous conditions, darkness and continuing rains forced retreat and a halt for the night.

The rescue effort resumed at 4 a.m. on Friday, reinforced by a group of the Municipal firefighter’s search and rescue team. Slackening rains allowed Company 86 finally reach Quejá about midmorning. The small Guatemalan military unit arrived shortly after.

Rescue Arrives

The first survivors of the landslide were found mostly huddled in one of the few concrete block buildings that had survived. Hungry, tired, wet and cold, they were gathered in small groups and evacuated on foot by the firefighters and soldiers. Children, the aged and the injured were often carried on the backs of the rescuers back down the mountain. Their destination another small village on the highway, Santa Elena, where a temporary refuge was being set up.

Meanwhile, the remaining firefighters began the difficult, and often grim, task of locating any survivors that may have been trapped under the landslide. According to the rescuers, for the first day they still heard screams from children and women for help. There are an estimated 100 people underneath the slide. Tools are in short supply and the mix of mud, stone and trees is described as like digging in cement. Recovery efforts will continue but with every hour the chance of rescue dims. Continuing landslides from the mountain above makes it very dangerous work.

It is unlikely that the people of Aldea Quejá will ever be able to return to the village where they made their lives. It is likely to be designated a national cemetery and the residents, mostly the poorest of the poor will have to seek lives elsewhere.

Scenes repeated all over Guatemala

Some 50 miles to the northwest lies Aldea Chabaj. A very similar mountain village in the Department of Huehuetenango, it too has suffered a major landslide. With similar tragic results.

Suffering the same infrastructure problems as Alta Verapaz, this slide is at nearly 10,000 feet in the high mountains. Walter Gomez, commander of Huhuetenango’s 17 Company CVB firefighters says the main highway into the area is blocked by road collapse and multiple tractor trailers. This is preventing search and rescue teams from other departments coming to aid the few resources under his command. Villages in Huehuetenango – Poxlac, Las Brisas 1 and 2, San Carlos and Chibal – had to wait many hours before these resources began to arrive.

What Goes Up Must come down: Flooding in the lowlands

The Department of Izabal, on the east coast of Guatemala is perhaps the hardest hit. Not only did they get the brunt of the storm, but all the water that fell in the mountains will drain to this area. Widespread catastrophic flooding has stranded many communities, washed out bridges and roadways and submerged whole towns. Puerto Barrios, Guatemala’s only gulf coast seaport, is not only flooded, but is cut off from the rest of the country. This will severely limit the availability of supplies and foodstuffs that normally flow through the port. Most of the bridges on the highway from Puerto Barrios to Guatemala city have failed.

Petén, home of the most famous Maya ruins, suffers a similar fate. Petén is the largest of Guatemala’s Departments, but also has the fewest emergency services. Zacapa and Chiquimula, near the Honduran border, have suffered severe flooding and bridge failures as well.

Hurricane Eta is a long term disaster.

Eta’s damage goes far beyond its immediate effects on the people and structures currently involved. The storm also destroyed the current crops on which the country, particularly the poor, depend. The largest part of the rural population are subsistence farmers or agricultural workers. Many will now be not only homeless, but without food and without income to rebuild.

AMEDICAusa and Hurricane Eta.

First, our staff and volunteers are safe. We are all currently on the pacific side of Guatemala or in Guatemala City where the storm was not nearly so bad. We will continue to operate with as little risk to our personnel as is possible.

Our plan is this, in order of priority and immediate need:

Continue to support the emergency services / firefighters during emergency operations. We have a very large airlift of equipment and supplies ready to fly as soon as the Air Force gives us the word. Our partners The REDS Team delivered another airlift to Guatemala today. We remain in contact with the fire companies and commanders in the field to assess and fulfill immediate needs.
Support shelters housing and feeding those who have lost their homes to the storm.
Support efforts to aid the children and their education long term.

This is a rapidly developing situation, but there is a lot to do both in the short term and long term. We would greatly appreciate whatever support you can give us, particularly cash donations.

UPDATE: Hurricane IOTA

Hurricane Iota is now approaching Central America and is poised to strike as recovery efforts from Eta are just beginning.

The National Hurricane Center has updated Iota’s strength to a Category 5 Hurricane. It will continue to strengthen until it makes landfall tonight. While this is a wind speed measurement, it correlates strongly with both the size and rainfall totals expected with the storm. Its path is also expected to slowly cross Central America, rather than swinging back into the Atlantic as did Eta. This will exacerbate the disaster following Eta and may greatly widen the area of destruction in Guatemala. Iota’s arrival will be two weeks to the day after Eta.

Raising Money for Tomorrow’s Disaster

Yes, I am going to ask for your money. Let me tell you why.

Raising Money was never my job. I certainly didn’t start out as a fundraising specialist. Which is probably a good thing. Not only is it MUCH harder than I would have thought, but it is also pretty difficult just to ask people for their money. Try walking up to a stranger and asking him to open his wallet, and you will know what I mean. After all, my training was in the fire service and paramedicine, two of the most trusted professions. Armed with those skills, previous disaster response experience and along with good ideas and a great cause, people would immediately see the need and send money.

Hmmm…. not.

The reality is that there are many thousands of charitable organizations out there, good, bad and just plain silly. In fact, I get more mail, E-mail and texts from professional fundraising companies than I do from donors. Charity fundraising services, classes, and internet programs are big business. If they just pooled what they spend on trying to sell me their services and donated it instead I could stop harassing you for funds. Alas, that is not to be.

Making it Personal.

When I first came to Central America a decade ago it was not as a dedicated relief worker, but simply to discover the land from which my immigrant grandfather came. What I found was a place filled with natural beauty. Where people still say hello to strangers on the street, where they actually care about how you are doing, and where, though impoverished, they share a common dream of making their country better.

Equipped only with my high-school and street Spanish, I began to volunteer for a small NGO and quickly discovered the “mission” that would consume the next decade of my life, and become my full-time, unsalaried job when I retired from the fire service. I met incredible people and talented volunteers, people who would become my dearest friends and valued co-workers in a daunting task, to make things just a little bit better. If it sounds like I am trying to be noble, I am not. I get far more from the people I work with than I could ever give in return.

It is not until you watch firefighters have their boots burn off their feet searching smouldering hot volcanic ash, then offer you the shirt off their back (Thank You, Henri!) that you begin to understand Guatemala. Share a humble meal with a teacher in a rural village who hasn’t been paid in six months, yet goes to work each day. Spend a morning with a Maya elder speaking of the spirits of the mountains or an afternoon with a farmer who explains the intricacies of growing papaya or a fifth grader harvesting coffee in the mountains to earn a few extra quetzales for his family. Once you know these people, it is difficult not to want to help. Raising money is a small price to pay.

The Sales Pitch

AMEDICAusa was born of a simple idea. Take the expertise and experience of our founding board members and volunteers and apply them to some of the major problems in Guatemala and Central America. Medical care, education and disaster relief. Make a big bang for the buck. Use targeted programs to help in specific areas and not try duplicate the “big guys”.

We Are There Before, During and After the Disaster.

Perhaps what AMEDICAusa is best known for is our disaster relief and training programs. Existence here can be dangerous. Guatemala is the most “at risk” non-island country on earth from natural disasters. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, storms and hurricanes from both the pacific and atlantic oceans, landslides or flooding are nearly daily occurrences. Add to that the “normal” emergencies of daily life and the violence endemic in the cities.

Most disaster relief organizations are reactive. Choosing to “bank” donations in accounts that may never be used, or relying solely on “Disaster Relief Teams” to respond to future disasters, days or weeks after the event. These efforts are valuable, to be sure. But they do not provide immediate response in the all important first seventy two hours after the event.

The AMEDICAusa Difference

AMEDICAusa chooses to be proactive. As in the United States, the primary Guatemalan emergency response in case of disaster is the Fire Service. They provide the rescue and emergency medical care for the vast majority of the nation. But they are stretched thin, having only about 250 stations in the entire country. (For comparison, Tennessee, about the same land area, has over 1200 fire stations for its 6 million residents. Guatemala’s population is well over 17 million.)

Many of the firefighters and medics are volunteers. The career firefighters are woefully underpaid (about $300 a month for 24 on – 24 off schedule). Training is hit and miss. Equipment is in short supply. Paramedics must purchase their own medications out of pocket. Government support is meager at best. Many stations still must rely on bucket brigades for firefighting because they have no fire engine. And, the roads are bad. Seriously bad. Travel times between stations can be greater than four HOURS. That’s a long time to wait for help.

By providing donated equipment and training to the Emergency Services of Guatemala on an ongoing and “pre-disaster” basis AMEDICAusa and our partners, The Reds Team, can make an impact in disaster response before the ground even stops shaking. Not just in major disasters, but in the smaller, non-newsmaking events that happen on a daily basis.

How We Do It

We supply equipment donated by agencies all across the United States. Generally used, but serviceable, gear that represents a substantial improvement over what little they have in Guatemala. Collecting, sorting and transporting this equipment, (everything from Helmets and boots to fully equipped fire engines) is only the beginning of our mission. The gear itself is valuable, but the training to use it is equally important.

Our instructors are all volunteers, professional firefighters, paramedics and rescue technicians. They donate their time and expertise to help their brother and sister first responders do their jobs more safely and effectively. From small scale classes with two or three departments to biennial large scale schools with up to fifty departments participating, we are constantly supporting the disaster response of the most important rescuers… those that are already “in-country”.

What’s up, Doc?

Medical care in rural Guatemala is scant. Something like 90% of the physicians in the country are concentrated in the two largest cities leaving the more rural population with little care. Relied upon by most of the people, the national hospital system is underfunded, understaffed and ill equipped. But, they do what they can with what little they have.

AMEDICAusa provides donated equipment, medications and volunteers in rural hospitals and clinics in Guatemala. Supporting specialized medical and dental missions, providing internships and clinics to rural villages, and EMS training to the fire service we are helping to improve the care available to the poor and indigenous of the country.

It’s About the Kids Too

Education. Simply attending school can be difficult or impossible for the poor and indigenous people of Guatemala. One of the things I noticed as I travelled around the country is how many children are out and about during what should be school hours. Many thousands of children in Guatemala are unable to attend or finish elementary school simply because their parents can not buy the simple supplies needed.

Basic school supplies are expensive. Particularly when you only make a dollar or two a day. AMEDICAusa provides these supplies, at no cost to the families, directly to the individual children in rural schools. By purchasing the supplies from wholesalers in Guatemala, and having our volunteers deliver them, we stretch the available dollars. This adds a little to the local economy, and reaches farther than I ever expected. But it does cost money. Our reach is limited only by your generosity. Keeping children in school and improving their education is perhaps the greatest gift you can provide to kids struggling in poverty.

Tying It All Together

So, three major programs, what do they have in common? They actually tie together more closely than you might think. It is rare that I do a school supply mission and I am not asked to examine an ill or injured child. Firefighters often serve as our volunteers on school missions and are always our most valuable ambassadors into a community. (Who knows a community better than the local firefighters?) Does it do any good to teach CPR if the local hospital does not have the equipment to treat the patient? One program flows into the other and all are important.

Yes, I am Raising Money

Raising money was never supposed to be my life’s work. Frankly, I would much rather be teaching firefighting in the lowlands of Petén, visiting a small school somewhere in the mangroves or seeing patients in a mountain village. But the fact is, none of those things can happen without you.

The reality is that raising money is probably my most important job. It is what allows our other volunteers, instructors and experts to reach the communities where they are most needed and can do the most good. Taking good care of that money, being as miserly as Scrooge with costs while being as generous as Santa with aid, is probably a close second.

If you have read this far, I hope I have “sold” you on the benefits of what we do. There are a LOT of charities out there and you are going to hear from them all over the next few weeks. But I am extraordinarily proud of our work and of the people, volunteers all, who make it possible. So, please, forgive me if I brag a little.

And, please, take a little time to open your heart and your wallet, and donate to AMEDICAusa.

At Risk: Going the Extra Mile and then some

Guatemala is the Most “At Risk” Non-Island Country in the world.

A recent UN sponsored study finds Guatemala’s risk of natural disasters to be extraordinarily high. While we knew this instinctively, the report confirms the difficulties our neighbors face from catastrophic events.

Santa Cruz Barillas, a remote municipality of 140,000 people, is a good example of both Guatemala’s disaster problems and AMEDICAusa’s solutions. Barillas is located in the high mountains at the northern edge of Huehuetenango province, not far from the border with Mexico. Its people are a mix of Qʼanjobʼal Maya indigenous peoples and Ladinos. Most are poor.

Though it is far from Guatemala’s volcanoes, Barillas is at risk not only from the day to day emergencies common throughout the world, but also potentially catastrophic events specific to the area. The terrain is steep. Deforestation and the ever present rains present significant risk of major landslides. It is pummeled by rain storms both from the Caribbean and Pacific. Road washouts occur every year.

Forest and other wildland fires are common in the dry season. The terrain and lack of roads makes them very difficult to control.

Santa Cruz Barillas also sits very close to the Ixcan Fault, which has historically generated earthquakes as great as magnitude 7.5. Many of the structures are of brick/adobe construction, ill suited to bear the movement of a major earthquake.

At Risk… and Alone

Against these threats the people of Barillas depend on one small company of the Bomberos Voluntarios firefighters. Consisting of seven paid (including the chief) and eight volunteers, the 109 Compañía Bomberos Voluntarios does what it can, providing medical aid and emergency services 24 hour a day to both the city and the surrounding villages. They are grossly short of equipment. Their 1963 (yes, 1963…) Chevy fire engine hasn’t run in ten years, they have little personal protective gear, ancient helmets and no airpacks. They fight fire by bucket brigade. Their nearest working fire engine is over four hours away.

“This is why AMEDICAusa was called to Barillas. Nowhere is the ‘thin red line’ of firefighters more embattled than in the remote mountains of Guatemala. “-Neale Brown, President, AMEDICAusa

Going the extra mile.

Travelling to Barillas is not for the faint of heart. The limited access is over a lonely, high altitude “highway” which lacks pavement, road signs, guard rails, services and often visibility. The road crests at well over 10,000 feet. With steep grades, often near 10%, engines strain and starve for air. Potholes are pond size, rocks and small boulders are common, and landslides frequent. It is just wide enough for two careful vehicles to pass. Along with this, daily rainstorms and thick fog occur in the afternoon, and an average speed of around ten miles an hour is the best to be hoped for.

Our trip began at o’dark thirty, leaving from Retalhuleu, near the coast. We are in the “AMEDICA-mobile” a 2007 Hyundai Tucson, two wheel drive SUV, with a 170K miles on her. (More about this later.) Fresh from the mechanic, we are hoping she is at last in good enough shape for a back-country trip.

Laughably optimistic, Google predicts an nine hour drive to cover the 175 mile journey. Armed with a full fuel tank, coffee, ham sandwiches, chicharrones, bottles of flavored agua pura and our fire gear we set off on a climb of the central mountains of Guatemala. We started with the idea that we will arrive early enough in the day to meet with the director of the 109 Company in the afternoon. Alas, that was but a dream.

Mountain Climbing

Climbing the first mountain passes was marred only by the normal predawn parade of overloaded trucks and suicidal bus drivers passing around blind corners on the wrong side of the road. Normal enough for Guatemala. It garners no more than the average number of malditos from me.

Once we begin the climb out of the city of Huehuetenango, already at over 6000 feet, it got interesting. The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes mountains are steep and the roads are “iffy”, at best. The AMEDICA-Mobile struggles for air and we are often slowed to black-smoking, walking speed. It does give us a lot of time to admire the views, when not slalom driving around wheel-eating potholes.

Cresting the first mountain range, there is a wide, relatively flat plateau, broken up by rocky outcroppings. Sheep are the common livelihood here and small shepard’s casitas dot the plain. We are occasionally delayed by wandering ruminant traffic jams. Sheep are apparently immune to the noise of a car horn.

Ominously, clouds begin forming in the next range. When we attempt the steeper climb into the high mountains, we discover two things. First, the pavement disappears between the mountain towns. Second, pockets of dense fog are becoming trapped between peaks. Once again we slow to a crawl.

Driving Blind

Between the sections of missing pavement are several picturesque towns. Signs along the road are now split between Spanish and Qʼanjobʼal. Beautiful Churches and more traditional Maya clothing. San Juan Ixcoy, Soloma, San Miguel Ixtatán and the infamous Santa Eulalia. (Note, Google Maps and Waze work here but there is a LOT of missing data.) If you get turned around in Santa Eulalia, you will find yourself at the bottom of a 12% grade that is impossible to climb when it is wet. When you say goodby to Santa Eulalia you also say goodbye to any semblance of pavement for the rest of the trip.

Having said Buenas Tardes to pavement and bouncing furiously among now unavoidable holes and rocks, we soon get to say goodbye to visibility as well. Riding along the 10,000 foot mark, we are enveloped in the afternoon fog and rain that is a daily occurrence here. Gone are the vistas, totally hidden by the clouds. This may be fortunate, as the precarious drop at the side of the road and the lack of shoulders and guardrails are equally obscured.

We are driving by braille now. Tailgating the rare vehicle in front of us to guide on their lights is helpful. The occasional pedestrian or stray dog, horse or pig appear ghostlike in front of us, then vanish with equal rapidity.

After four hours of “nose against the glass” driving we arrive finally in Barillas. The fog dissipates as we drive into the valley and the city opens up before us. There is pavement (in some places) again. Five hours after our hoped-for arrival time… tired, hungry and mud spattered, we get a quick bite and retire to our hotel.

A Community at Risk.

Barillas is a big town, but from an Emergency Services perspective, it is a lonely place. Mutual aid, help from other fire departments, is not coming. It is four and a half hours or more to the next fire station. Far from the seat of government in Guatemala City, they have been fighting for two decades for a paved highway to no avail. More merchandise comes to town “informally” across the Mexican border than via more traditional routes. But you can’t strap a fire engine to a burro carry it across the Mexican frontier.

We met with the firefighters and officers at the modest fire station near the center of town. Welcoming us as brother firefighters, and proudly touring us around their spartan quarters, they are eager to discuss the issues of the company and the problems they face. In fact, both shifts and a few volunteers are in quarters for us.

“You can’t strap a fire engine to a burro and carry it across the Mexican frontier”

Some of the challenges faced by the firefighters are obvious. Terrain, narrow, often unpaved streets, haphazard electrical wiring, both inside and in the transmission lines, lack of zoning are omnipresent in Guatemala. The mercado, a large area of ramshackle, semi-permanent stalls housing small stores, is the major target hazard. A fire here could devastate the city.

Not so obvious is that the firefighters themselves are at risk. Lacking appropriate personal gear for firefighting, sufficient water and even a working fire engine the risk of serious injury is high. Even the routine EMS run presents significant hazards.

“They robbed us in the ambulance last month” relates one firefighter. “They took everything, shoes, jackets, money and equipment. All they left us was the ambulance and stretcher.” The incident took place at around midnight on a lonely stretch of the highway, in between towns. (This story added significantly to the stress later when we get stranded by a mechanical breakdown on the highway in the middle of the night.).

AMEDICAusa Bringing Aid to Barillas Firefighters

Our mission is, in large part, disaster relief. It is our belief that equipping and training the local first responders is far more effective than simply banking supplies and money for use after an event. It also provides for aid to at risk communities for incidents that don’t make international news.

We have already prepared a shipment of personal protective equipment for Barillas, sending more than a dozen complete sets of firefighting gear to the firefighters. We have also tentatively designated a fire engine for donation to the company. It is the least we could do. Of course, we will also be providing the training to go with it.

More trips to the mountains are in our future.

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

We thought we had had enough adventure on our route into Barillas. Leaving early in the morning was an attempt to at least miss the afternoon fogs and rain on our return. Unfortunately, this was not to be. We rattled through the early portion of the trip, but rains caught us as we arrived in Santa Eulalia. This was enough to prevent not only us, but an entire parade of other vehicles from climbing the mud slicked monster slope through town. Stuck in the vehicular clump, we waited more than two hours for the police to find and clear an alternate route for traffic to pass. With the added time it was almost dark when we began the climb to the summit outside San Juan Ixcoy.

We almost made it.

Just a kilometer below the summit, before reaching the plateau, the AMEDICA-Mobile gave up the ghost and absolutely refused to go farther. After dark, in a fog and rain storm, in the middle of the road, without shoulders, and at the end of a blind corner, she stalled. Starved for air, no amount of coaxing could get the vehicle to move more than a few feet.

Many words and phrases, in several languages, came immediately to mind. None are printable here. We are at risk in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

We Get Rescued… again

There are a great many advantages to having friends among the firefighters here in Guatemala. Like firefighters everywhere, they will give you the shirt off their back (sometimes literally) if you need it. The AMEDICA-Mobile has failed us a couple of times in the past, usually near a Fire Station where we were able to get assistance.

While the firefighters in Huehuetenango are still at least a couple of hours away, I chance a call to them to ask if they know of a tow truck in the area. An hour later they have our rescue arranged. Police arrive to help us move the car out of traffic and provide a little security while we wait. Comandante Walter Gomez in his command car and an ambulance arrive in two hours to carry us and our gear back to Huehuetenango and a hotel, and a tow truck is dispatched at first light to retrieve the AMEDICA-mobile and take it to the fire company mechanic.

We dined on cupcakes and coffee that evening, but not being stuck in the mountains all night (or being crushed by an overloaded tractor trailer) was a huge gift, as was the ride back to Retalhuleu the next day.

Donations Gladly Accepted

Normally at this point in a news post, I would add a little blurb to ask for donations, and it is time for our annual donation drive. The fact is we NEED a different vehicle. As we reach out to more remote areas the need for a heavier duty, four wheel drive, RELIABLE vehicle, capable of transporting our instructors and equipment, is becoming more obvious. It is hard to drive anywhere in Guatemala without crossing the mountains, and the old Hyundai is on her last legs. I guarantee your donations will go a long way.

Including that extra mile….

Click to Donate to AMEDICAusa

Embattled Nahualá Firefighters host AMEDICAusa visit

Nahualá firefighters have many obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is the altitude of their home. Located at just over 8000 feet, even cars can have difficulty with the lack of air pressure. The roads into their picturesque town crest at over 10,000 feet. Like your grandfather’s school, it is truly uphill both ways.

Our friend, Francisco Chox, known as El Chivo, the goat, has invited us here for a tour of the station and to meet the other firefighters of this highland town. Chox is widely known in the Guatemalan Fire Service community for having completed his final physical skills exam at the fire academy while wearing only the traditional Maya traje under his airpack and helmet. This makes our knees hurt to even think about. He still wears the traje on duty, though he jokes, NOT in a fire.

Francisco has often travelled far to attend AMEDICAusa classes in other parts of Guatemala. So we felt it was only fair to visit Nahualá in return.

A trip to Nahualá: 3 Hours in Second Gear

Travel in Guatemala is, at best, difficult. Driving from the pacific lowlands into the mountains can be tortuous. The roads are narrow, serpentine exercises in frustration. Swerving from lane to lane around giant potholes, immensely overloaded trucks grind their way up the road at walking speed. Every small village boasts a series of túmulos, carnivorous speed bumps, that will destroy your undercarriage if hit at speed. (Tire and wheel shops are a fixture on the road next to these hazards.) Chicken buses, brightly painted, converted former U.S. school buses and the most common form of motorized transportation in Guatemala, pass you uphill and around corners, daring descending vehicles to collide. (and they do so in alarming numbers.)

Divided highways become two lane roads, then one way, cobblestone streets without warning. While Google Maps is surprisingly useful in Guatemala, only the foolish or suicidal would ever trust a shortcut provided by the service. Add rain and the odd landslide or two, and we begin to practice our repertoire of Spanish curses. Our trip is only 60 road miles, but it takes a full three hours to complete.

From Tropical Summer to Eternal Spring

Our “base of operations” in Retalhuleu, Guatemala is in the extreme heat and humidity of the lowlands. We are pummeled by fierce afternoon thunderstorms but is sunny and very hot in the morning. It is a land generally covered in sugar cane, palms and mango fincas outside of the city. The terrain is flat, and only occasionally broken by a river or small hill. The smoking Volcán Santiaguito, one of three Guatemalan Volcanoes actively erupting, marks our departure from the lowlands, and our slow climb into the spring time weather of the mountains. Palm and banana trees give way to pines as we near the community of Nahualá. There is a 25 degree drop in temperature and a welcome breeze as we near the summit of the Pan American highway. Lago Atitlán, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, can be glimpsed in the distance.

Nahualá is a K’iché Maya community.
Most of the residents speak K’iché as their primary language with spanish as their second.
As many as thirty percent do not speak Spanish at all.

K’iché is a melodious language, though, using sounds that do not exist in english or spanish, difficult for a gringo tongue. Inexplicably, it is odd to hear it spoken on the fire dispatch cellular telephone, as if an ancient language does not belong on modern technology. Substituting Spanish for the words that don’t exist in K’iché comes second nature to the firefighters. An interesting two and three language conversation arose, testing our patience as we groped for explanations and translations of fire department terminology.

Nahualá Firefighters: Rolling a Stone Uphill

Over 50,000 people live in Nahualá. Since most are indigenous Maya, most are impoverished. Protecting this town is one small fire company, 77 Compañía, Bomberos Voluntarios. The Nahualá firefighters are six “permanentes” (paid, career firefighters) and six more volunteers. The paid firefighters work a three man shift, on a 24 on and 24 off schedule for about $300 usd a month. Their fire engine is an elderly japanese truck, with 600 gallons of water and 100 feet of 1 1/2″ firehose. That’s it. No supply hose. There are no fire hydrants. There is no water tender (tanker). Meant for civilian use, what they call “firefighting” nozzles began life as standpipe nozzles in an American building somewhere. Of course, their bunker gear is threadbare and holed as well. Additionally, three of their twelve fire helmets date back to World War II, the others to at least the 1980’s.

Emergency Medical Care in the Cordillera

As in the U.S., in Guatemala the most common service provided by the Fire Department in emergency medical care. The firefighters are the primary source of EMS and ambulance transport throughout the country. Nahualá is no exception. The hospitals serving Nahualá are an hour or more away in either direction. Responding to these calls are two serviceable ambulance units, one a converted toyota van, the other a camper shell equipped pickup.

The van has a stretcher, an ancient Ferno model 30. Once common in the U.S. they are now largely abandoned because of the difficulty loading it into an ambulance, particularly here. (The K’iché are a diminutive people, it is the only place where we feel tall.) They can lift the stretcher only by sheer force of will. They are forced to lash it in place with rope because the floor mechanism that holds it in place is not available. On the other hand, only an old, unwheeled, wood and canvas military stretcher services the other. For bandages, equipment and other medical supplies, they rely on donations.

We talk over recent Nahualá recent calls, “War Stories” as they are referred to in the fire service. The nearest mutual aid fire companies are over an hour away. A month ago a tractor trailer plowed into a large group of people trying to assist a previous motor vehicle accident. The impact killed nineteen people and injured dozens more. Yesterday they spent eight hours on a mutual aid call retrieving the body of a french tourist who managed to walk over a cliff near Lake Atitlán.

AMEDICAusa to provide assistance

There is more to our trip than just a friendly chat. It is a chance to take a detailed look at what the fire company has, what they need and how we might help. After all, our disaster relief mission is training and equipping the fire and rescue services of Guatemala. An integral part of that process is evaluating the local services and sending our resources where they will do the most good.

Nahualá meets all of our criteria. A large population with a dedicated but under equipped fire company. No nearby mutual aid companies to assist, so we will not be duplicating services.. A willingness to train and work hard.

All we need is a little of your help.

Want to help in Nahualá and other impoverished areas of Guatemala? Donate a little of your hard earned money here. Contact us about donating used but serviceable fire equipment, PPE or apparatus. Get fully involved by joining us on a training mission in Guatemala. It is an experience you will not soon forget.

Click here to make a difference .

Your donation to AMEDICAusa, of whatever amount, helps save lives in Central America

AMEDICAusa, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Public Charity.

IRS # 81-0842688

Donations to AMEDICAusa, Inc. are tax deductible under IRC section 170.

We Will Not Give Up In Guatemala

This is not a political story. We will not be discussing the merits of international policy decisions, the linkage of ideology to food, nor the wisdom of alienating your neighbors. Rather it is simply our purpose to point out that, in the absence of United States international aid, the challenges for non-governmental agencies, such as ours, become both greater and more important. We should never give up in Guatemala.

In short, it is a plea for donations.

Some humanitarian programs formally supported by U.S. aid will wither and die. Defunding the U.S. backed security programs will cause the Guatemalan government to shift monies away from social programs to security and military uses. In either case their absence will leave a vacuum that can only be filled by the charities and NGOs operating in the northern triangle countries.

It is your concern when your neighbor’s house is on fire.
Horace, Roman Poet 65 BC – 8 BC

Because of it’s unique geology and geography, Guatemala suffers from repeating natural disasters. Sitting on the nexus of four tectonic plates, earthquakes are an ever-present threat. Three of the thirty volcanoes in Guatemala are actively erupting as you read this. Tropical storms and hurricanes strike from both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The rainy season brings floods and life threatening landslides, the dry season brings wildfires and drought.

Against these threats stands Guatemala’s Fire Service, the only dependable and organized emergency services in the country. Made up of roughly 250 fire stations nationwide, they subsist on little but donations. Their personal gear, equipment, ambulances and fire engines are largely donated, second or third hand tools from the United States. (For comparison, Tennessee, roughly the same size as Guatemala, but with only a third the population, has over a thousand fire stations to serve it’s citizens.) .

Why Guatemalans Flee

Poverty, violence, poor education, endemic corruption and natural disasters mar the country known as “the land of eternal spring.” Still recovering after four decades of a bloody civil war, the poverty rate, those who live on $2.00 a day or less, hovers around 65%. The rate is much higher among the indigenous Maya peoples and the rural population. (260 people own 56% of ALL of the wealth of Guatemala.) Education outside of Guatemala City rarely extends beyond 6th grade. Eight in ten indigenous Maya children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Ninety percent of all the physicians in the country practice in Guatemala City, leaving few resources for the remainder of the country’s 17.5 million people. Violence in the cities has reached epidemic proportions, fueled by the maras (gangs) and narcotraficantes. Police services are suspect at best and governmental corruption is the norm, with both the last president and his vice president awaiting trial for various corruption schemes. Awash in international debt, abandoned by the foreign corporations that profited by exporting their natural resources, and struggling to make it’s way forward in the developing world, the Guatemalan government is simply unable to meet the needs of it’s people without aid from the outside.

Rising need, dwindling resources

Since 2015 our annual small donations have dropped by half. Other NGOs we have spoken with in Central America have reported similar declines. Whether this is the product of changes in political rhetoric and attitudes about Central Americans or the decline in tax advantages in the changing tax code remain to be seen.

What is not in question is the result. With fewer funds, charities are unable to reach many of those most in need. With the coming vacuum in U.S. foreign aid to Central America the numbers of people in need will rise.

From a humanitarian view, it is very bad math.

So, it is our purpose to reach out to the private citizens and corporations to step up and help fill the void. Yes, we would be honored if you would donate to us. But, if not us, find a charity working in Central America that you trust, whose mission you want to support, and send them a few bucks.

Chicago Community Comes through for Guatemala Firefighters

In Guatemala, firefighters face huge challenges every day just doing their job. They are chronically underfunded, poorly paid and largely unequipped. Never the less, they answer the call for fires, emergency medical services, accidents and frequent natural disasters.

U.S. based charity AMEDICAusa has been working to help alleviate the problems faced by firefighters in Guatemala. Providing donated firefighting and rescue equipment, as well as training the fire and rescue services in Central America has been a hallmark of the organization.

Logistics is not sexy, but it is essential

Making sure the donated equipment gets to Guatemala firefighters is difficult. It must go to the correct fire station, be compatible with their neighbor’s equipment and be delivered in a timely manner to a foreign country some 3000 miles away. It is complex and labor intensive. Volunteers drive thousands of miles to gather donated equipment, sort and package it for the individual needs of the receiving fire departments, prepare it for inspection then deliver it for shipment to Guatemala. It is no small task.

“As our organization has expanded, we have run into a severe shortage of space” said Neale Brown, President of AMEDICAusa. “Our storage spaces were full, both in Maryland and in the Midwest. We did not have sufficient space to sort, pack and palletize the equipment to be shipped to Guatemala. We have a similar problem in North Carolina. This was causing delays due to inclement weather and lack of volunteer manpower. That does not even mention the increasing costs of storage space. Some of our supporters have been storing gear in their homes and businesses, at their personal expense and great inconvenience.”

Chicago to the Rescue

That is where the community of Chicago came in. The Sociedad Cívico Cultural Guatemala (SCCG) has long been a leader in the latino community in the Windy City. Having worked on several projects with AMEDICAusa in the past, they once again stepped up to aid their brethren in Central America. An area wide search was begun by SCCG to locate donated warehouse space to solve the problem. Friends called friends, and soon three companies had stepped up to help… Máximo Marín of Maximum Transport, Inc. donated warehouse space, the use of his tractor, fuel and driving. Humberto Morenos of MTC Morenos, Inc. donated additional warehouse space and Mike Irwin of BT Trucking donated the use of a commercial trailer.

The volunteers of SCCG and AMEDICAusa Midwest coordinators Keith and Jeanie Anderson acted as stevedores, loading and unloading the trailer and organizing the donations. The first load of donated fire equipment was moved from Crown Point, Indiana to the warehouse in Chicago on March 16th.

“This isn’t the glory part of the charity, but it is incredibly important. Everyone likes the part where they get their pictures taken in front of the big plane distributing the equipment in Guatemala. The real work, though, is getting it there in the first place. I can not thank the volunteers and donating companies enough. They are the heroes of this story.”
-Neale Brown, President, AMEDICAusa

Organizing the Warehouse
Firefighter for a day
Loading the Truck
Unloading the truck

What’s next for Guatemala Firefighters? Want to help?

Moving the remainder of AMEDICAusa’s donated equipment from Maryland to Chicago is the next step. Combining it with the equipment already there will enable the charity to send enough equipment for ten or more fire companies in Central America in their next shipment.

“Our normal shipments are generally equipment for about ten companies, but having this ‘distribution center’ will allow us to either expand the number of companies, or send shipments more often.” says Brown. “we can always use more donations of Fire engines, ambulances and equipment for the Guatemalan firefighters. They truly are in extreme need.”

“Right now, we are also in need of financial donations. We operate with totally volunteer labor, but renting the trucks, fuel and associated supplies costs cash money. While this move will save us a lot of money in the future, we are looking at a couple of thousand dollars in expenses involved in the transition. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is difficult for a smaller charity on a shoe string budget.”

People wishing to aid AMEDICAusa can donate here:

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Firefighting Instructors Get Hot in Guatemala

Retalhuleu, Guatemala – The polar vortex wreaks frigid havoc across the United States. Meanwhile, AMEDICAusa firefighting instructors Gary Allcox and Neale Brown work in heat stroke conditions in the pacific lowlands of Guatemala.

Today’s class is the second stop of a ten day, four city mission, involving nine different fire departments. The participants are the Bomberos Voluntarios of Retalhuleu, and the new Bomberos Municipales of San Felipe.

Unfortunately, fire engines do not come with instruction manuals

– Neale Brown, President, AMEDICAusa

These training missions are an important part of AMEDICAusa’s programs to support and aid the first responders of Guatemala. “We never donate equipment without providing the training to use it safely and effectively.” Said Neale Brown, AMEDICAusa’s president and CEO.

“In this case, we are assisting the city of San Felipe, Retalhuleu, start their first fire department. ” said Brown. “We are sending them a donated fire engine soon, and we want to make sure that they are ready to respond on Day One. By pairing them with their more experienced neighbors, they can train together and learn to work more effectively.”

The classes are structured to teach and practice basic skills for firefighters and fire engine operators. Pump operations, rapid fire attack, hose loads and SCBA practice are the order of the day. The importance of mutual aid is also stressed by involving members from the two neighboring companies to work together.

San Miguel los Lotes – Guatemala’s New Pompeii

Dinning Table where a family was just sitting down for lunch in San Miguel los Lotes, Guatemala (photo: AMEDICAusa)

Nothing was Unusual in San Miguel los Lotes

Zona Cero, Guatemala – A quiet, sunny, Sunday afternoon in the small Guatemalan town. The only day off for most of the villagers who commonly work sunrise to sunset six days a week, toiling in the fields of nearby fincas or tending one of the myriad Tiendas (tiny convenience stores) that dot the towns of the country. Some are just home from church, some are sleeping off Saturday’s ritual night out. Kids are playing inside and out. Dogs roam the streets. Mothers and grandmothers are setting lunch, Sunday’s main meal, on tables outside. Dominating the skyline above is Guatemala’s most active volcano, Volcán Fuego, emitting a pretty normal plume of ash and steam…

https://www.amedicausa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Volcan-Fuego-Eruption.mp4

Volcán Fuego Eruption – June 3, 2018, San Miguel los Lotes (Caution: Strong images)

Gray. Just Gray.

An overwhelming monochrome moonscape strikes you as soon as you arrive. As if someone has filtered out all the color from the world and left only the slight variations of tone found in old photographs. What little color remains is muted, dusty and somehow sadder for its rarity. A child’s shoe here, a discarded plastic cup there… but not nearly enough to brighten the landscape. What few leaves remain on the scorched and dying trees are dull, drooping and grey/tan. A sudden and very hot winter has come to the land of eternal spring. At first, you see what appears to be a scattering of small houses, dusty, dirty, and empty. It is only when you look closer that you realize that you are looking at the second story, the single story residences having been completely buried.

This is, in fact, one of the chief dangers of San Miguel los Lotes now.

A Dangerous Path

There is the Volcano, of course. It remains active and new eruptions are not only possible, but likely. We have posted a lookout just in case there is any activity during our survey. We are five miles from the main vent, close enough that there is some danger. Lahars are a threat as well, but less so, since there haven’t been heavy rains in the last two or three days. Dust is less of a problem since the rains have compacted much of the finer ash that would pose a heath risk. Still, we are careful not to scuff our feet or raise more dust than we absolutely have to.

Partially excavated for access, the main street of San Miguel los Lotes (photo: AMEDICAusa)

No, the most serious risk we face at the moment is the buried, unmarked houses. Most have laminate roofs, either metal or fiberglass, not very well supported in the best of times, now carrying the load of many tons of ash and rock. Some have already collapsed, leaving sandy, crater-like depressions in the earth, adding to the feeling you are on the moon.

It would take just a little more weight, say your footstep, to collapse a roof, drop you into the void and bury you in the ash that followed.

San Miguel los Lotes Before & After Eruption (photos: DigitalGlobe)

Learning from Disaster

AMEDICAusa had, of course, been active in the disaster recovery from the day of the eruption. Messages from our friends and firefighter colleagues in Guatemala started pouring in within minutes of the event. Clearly it was much worse than the initial news reports. It became quickly evident that there was severe shortages of even the most simple of rescue and emergency medical supplies. That became our priority. Our staff and volunteers were engaged in the effort to get supplies to the shelters, hospitals and first responders for the first two weeks after the disaster.But identifying needs, arranging donations and distribution of supplies from the States is not the same as being on the ground.

To learn what was done and what wasn’t, what worked and what didn’t, I needed to go to Zona Cero.

When in Doubt, Call the Fire Department

My first call was to my long time friend, Comandante Vinicio Calderon, Chief of 32 Compañía, Bomberos Voluntarios, in Patulul. In addition to his duties as Chief of Department, Calderon serves as commander of an entire regional division of Guatemalan’s Fire Service, some 16 cities, including the area near Volcán del Fuego. Calderon was part of the command team, and intimately involved in the emergency response to the eruption.

Zona Cero is a restricted area, for many reasons, but primarily because of the dangers involved in just being there. No one is allowed in without legitimate need. CONRED (Guatemala’s version of FEMA) keeps a tight reign on access. Even with prior arrangement, it took several hours and a lot of paperwork to obtain my unrestricted pass from CONRED. (I was asked for next of kin information and to which hospital I wished to be transported as well as my normal travel documents… an ominous touch.) They do not allow media access and the press has congregated in a small, semi-permanent knot around the zone’s roadblock.

Neale Brown and Comandante Vinicio Calderon at San Miguel los Lotes (photo: 32 Cia. Bomberos Voluntarios)

On The Road

The military counts people in and out, as even with an official pass, only so many are permitted in the zone at a time. We were held at the military guard station for over an hour and were allowed in only when enough workers had exited to counter our entrance.

The first half mile of the journey into the zone from the checkpoint is eerie. There is a fine coating of ash over everything, but for the most part it looks undamaged, but deserted. Houses, stores, even cars stand ready for use, but remain empty. Occasional stray dogs wander alongside the road. I wonder who, if anyone, takes care of them. A low, gray, rocky hill in the middle of the highway marks our entry into the true Zona Cero. Beyond this point the pavement ends, covered in hundreds of thousands of tons of volcanic ash and rock. A highway crew is parked next to the buried village. They are working feverishly to reopen Ruta 14, the main highway linking western Guatemala to Antigua.

A Walk on the Moon

Accompanied by Comandante Calderon and three of his firefighters who were here during the initial response to the eruption, we climbed the ash hill into the ruins of the village. There is a smell. At first, just a faint whiff of sulfur, then the strong smell of corruption and decay. It waxes and wanes as we walk, but it is always there. An awful reminder that this is now officially a cemetery, with a great many bodies still unrecovered. The Fire Chief relates how difficult it was to abandon the recovery effort.

We walked through some of the buildings that were still accessible. A neighborhood restaurant and bar, the chairs and tables scattered and overturned. The small kitchen of a home. The shrine to Virgen de Guadalupe that somehow survived the destruction of the rest of its building. The firefighters pointed out where they were able to affect rescues, and the more numerous places where they recovered the dead. Search markings left by the responders remain on the walls of those structures above the ash. A paint mark meaning three dead found here, or more commonly, no entry, no survivors. Over there, they say, is where we recovered the children, indicating a breached cement block wall where five children were found clutching each other on a bed. I’ve seen the photograph. I won’t reproduce it here.

Firefighters deal with their burning boots at San Miguel los Lotes

Firefighters faced increasing injuries, damage to equipment, and were finally chased out of the zone, at a dead run, in an emergency evacuation due to a lahar. Command ordered all rescue and recovery efforts to cease. Difficult as it was, the risk to the responders outweighed the bleak prospects for any remaining rescues. It was unpopular. Families wanted their loved ones recovered. Firefighters wanted to keep working.

It was, however, the correct decision.

Lessons learned and What is Needed Now?

Despite the danger, and the difficulty of the task, both mentally and physically, the firefighters didn’t want to give up. Hiking boots fell apart, the glue melting and the stitching charred by the latent heat of the debris. Gloves wore out in hours, abraded by the glass-like volcanic ash. Eyes grew red and irritated by the dust, leaking around cheap construction goggles. Coughing and sneezing from that which penetrated the masks.

Questions remain about the initial circumstances surrounding the government’s response to the disaster. The authorities were apparently meeting about whether or not to evacuate the area at the time of the eruption. This has raised something of a political firestorm, but is not related to the emergency response to the disaster after the eruption itself. By all accounts, while there were some difficulties, the fire service performed well, even heroically, in the response. There are some training issues, but the biggest problems involved equipment, or rather, the lack thereof. Boots and gloves for the responders were used up at a prodigious rate. Not designed for intense heat nor the abrasive volcanic materials what few they had were soon gone. Simple masks and goggles capable of filtering out the fine volcanic dust were in short supply.

The end of the pyroclastic flow at the furthest edge of the village. (photo: AMEDICAusa)

The Scope of the Disaster

The official toll stands at 169 fatalities, though they are only counting those victims whom they have identified. Firefighters Juan Bajxac and Antonio Castillo were killed in the eruption. Both were members of 55 Compañía CVB, Alotenango. CONRED official Juan Francisco Galindo and Police Officer Donaldo Chután Enríquez also gave their lives.

Juan Bajxac and Antonio Castillo of 55 Compañía, CVB, Alotenango, Guatemala, evacuating people from a bridge moments before their death.

Unofficially, authorities in the Guatemalan government and rescuers within Zona Cero have told us the the actual numbers are closer to 3,000 dead. Several small villages, not mapped or named, are not included. Hundreds more sustained injuries, including life threatening burns.

3,379 people remain in twelve official shelters. Thousands more being sheltered privately with family and friends.

San Miguel los Lotes has been declared a National Cemetery.

Relief Efforts Continue

The shelters for the survivors are exhausting many of their relief supplies. One shelter, the Finca de Industria in Esquintla, told me that they will run out of food on or about October 1st. They are also short of personal sanitation supplies and cleaning products. Fortunately, one of our partner organizations, Sociedad Cívico Cultural Guatemala of Chicago, Illinois, is delivering more than a truckload of supplies to the shelters this week to help ease the shortages. (Though many of the canned and dried foodstuffs they shipped have been held at the border, “until it can be determined if they are expired”. They aren’t – I helped pack a lot of them.) A lot more will be needed before the survivors can be resettled.

Plans for that are moving with glacial rapidity.

Want to help? The survivors and the first responders of the eruption of Volcán Fuego need a helping hand. You can make a donation to AMEDICAusa easily and securely here.

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