Page 6 - ATD20MAR2023

A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 20 March 2023
From highlands to the coast, quake damages Ecuador, Peru

By GONZALO SOLANO and “At critical moments of seis-
REGINA GARCIA CANO mic movements, they tend
Associated Press to collapse,” he said.
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador is particularly
Juan Vera lost three rela- prone to earthquakes. In
tives when a strong earth- 2016, a quake centered
quake that shook parts of farther north on the Pacific
Ecuador and Peru on Sat- Coast in a more sparsely
urday brought down his populated area of the
niece’s home. The govern- country killed more than
ment has offered to pay for 600 people.
the woman’s funeral and In Peru, the earthquake
those of her baby and her was felt from its northern
partner, but Vera wonders border with Ecuador to the
why local authorities al- central Pacific coast. Peru-
lowed his relatives to live in vian Prime Minister Alberto
such an old home to begin Otárola said a 4-year-old
with. girl died from head trauma
“Because of its age, that she suffered in the collapse
building should have been of her home in the Tumbes
demolished already,” Vera region, on the border with
said outside the morgue in Ecuador.
Ecuador’s community of “I’m close to the Ecuador-
Machala, where he was A police officer looks up next to a car crushed by debris after an earthquake shook Cuenca, ean people and assure
waiting for the three bod- Ecuador, Saturday, March 18, 2023. Associated Press them of my prayers for the
ies to be released. “... I’m dead and suffering,” Fran-
sorry, the mayor’s office is poor, were old and did not The office of Ecuadorian of Machala, a two-story cis said.
the entity that has to regu- meet building standards President Guillermo Lasso home collapsed before Saturday’s quake killed at
late these things through in the earthquake-prone reported that 12 of the people could evacuate, a least 15 people, injured
its planning departments country. victims died in the coast- pier gave way and a build- hundreds and brought
so that the buildings are in By Sunday, the number of al state of El Oro and two ing’s walls cracked, trap- down homes and buildings
good condition to be rent- people injured in Ecuador in the highlands state of ping an unknown number in vastly different communi-
ed out or inhabited.” was reported to be at least Azuay. of people. ties, from coastal areas to
The earthquake with about 446. The earthquake cen- One of the victims in Azuay Quito-based architect the highlands. At least one
6.8 magnitude, as report- tered just off the Pacific was a passenger in a ve- Germán Narváez said the of the deaths was in Peru.
ed by the U.S. Geological Coast, about 50 miles (80 hicle crushed by rubble houses most affected dur- Saturday’s earthquake de-
Survey, killed at least 15 kilometers) south of Guay- from a house in the An- ing earthquakes are those stroyed the home of Dolo-
people and brought down aquil, Ecuador’s second- dean community of Cuen- with deficient construction res Vaca in Machala. The
homes and buildings in largest city. ca, according to the Risk and that lack foundation, moment she felt the first
vastly different communi- One of the victims died in Management Secretariat, structure and technical jolt, she said, she ran out
ties, from coastal areas to Peru, while 14 others died Ecuador’s emergency re- design. He added that the into the street while her
the highlands. But in Ecua- in Ecuador, where authori- sponse agency. houses are also old and husband managed to drag
dor, regardless of geogra- ties also reported more In El Oro, the agency also built with materials such as their daughter out. Then,
phy, many of the homes than 300 damaged homes, reported that several peo- adobe, which was once “everything fell apart, the
that crumbled had a lot in schools, health care cen- ple were trapped under frequently used in Andean house flattened, everything
common: They housed the ters and other buildings. rubble. In the community communities. was lost,” she said.q

Lack of hugs caused U.S. fentanyl crisis,

Mexico’s leader says

overdose deaths per year braces,” López Obrador portedly helps people work
in the United States. said of the U.S. crisis. “That harder.
López Obrador said family is why they (U.S. officials) López Obrador has been
values have broken down should be dedicating funds stung by calls in the United
in the United States, be- to address the causes.” States to designate Mexi-
cause parents don’t let López Obrador has repeat- can drug gangs as terror-
their children live at home edly said that Mexico’s ist organizations. Some Re-
long enough. He has also close-knit family values are publicans have said they
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives his denied that Mexico pro- what have saved it from favor using the U.S. military
regularly scheduled morning press conference at the National duces fentanyl. the wave of fentanyl over- to crack down on the Mexi-
Palace in Mexico City, Feb. 28, 2023. On Friday, the Mexican doses. Experts say that Mex- can cartels.
Associated Press president told a morning ican cartels are making so On Wednesday, López
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mex- Andrés Manuel López Ob- news briefing that the prob- much money now from the Obrador called anti-drug
ico’s president said Friday rador caps a week of pro- lem was caused by “a lack U.S. market that they see policies in the U.S. a failure
that U.S. families were to vocative statements from of hugs, of embraces.” no need to sell fentanyl in Wednesday and proposed
blame for the fentanyl him about the crisis caused “There is a lot of disintegra- their home market. a ban in both countries on
overdose crisis because by the fentanyl, a synthetic tion of families, there is a Cartels frequently sell meth- using fentanyl in medicine
they don’t hug their kids opioid trafficked by Mexi- lot of individualism, there amphetamines in Mexico, — even though little of the
enough. can cartels that has been is a lack of love, of broth- where the drug is more drug crosses from hospitals
The comment by President blamed for about 70,000 erhood, of hugs and em- popular because it pur- into the illegal market.q