Mexico lends a hand in Katrina relief
Mexico, long on the receiving end of U.S. disaster relief, is sending a hurricane aid convoy to help its larger, richer and more powerful northern neighbor.
A Mexican army convoy is heading for Houston, Texas, carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The convoy has “a very high symbolic content,” said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. “This is a very sensitive subject, for historic and political reasons.”
Large Mexican flags were taped to many of the 35 olive-green Mexican army trucks and tractor trailers as they rumbled northward toward the border on Wednesday. The convoy was to cross into Laredo, Texas, early Thursday, President Vicente Fox’s office said.
“This is just an act of solidarity between two peoples who are brothers,” Fox’s spokesman Ruben Aguilar said of the mission.
The trucks, carrying 195 unarmed soldiers and specialists, will apparently be used to provide water and hot meals for people evacuated from the New Orleans area.
The convoy includes two mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people a day, three flatbed trucks carrying mobile water treatment plants and 15 trailers of bottled water, blankets and applesauce. It also includes military engineers, doctors and nurses.
“This is the first time that the United States has accepted a military mission from Mexico” for such work, said Javier Ibarrola, a newspaper columnist who covers military affairs in Mexico. “This is something that’s never happened before.”
The relief mission was controversial for some Mexican senators, who said the president should have sought Senate approval for sending troops.
But the government was already planning another 12-vehicle aid convoy for this week. It has sent a Mexican navy ship heading toward the Mississippi coast with rescue vehicles and helicopters.
Mexico has sent disaster relief aid missions to other Latin American nations, but not to the United States.
Source: cnn.com
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Mexico offered the United States two Mexican navy ships, 15 amphibious vehicles, two helicopters and 15 heavy trucks on Saturday to help in the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina.
President Vicente Fox said the government had donated US1 million an amount matched by a private Mexican aid foundation for hurricane relief efforts.
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Fox also offered
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