Earthquake victims in Oaxaca still homeless

Damaged buildings and rubble in some streets of the center of the city of Juchitán, in Oaxaca , don't let the people here forget the tragedy they've lived – an event which left over 8,000 people homeless in this state.

Houses with shoring and collapsed buildings are the evidence that reconstruction is far from finished; empty lands with improvised tarpaulin huts are a common sight.

Despite the infrastructure of the architectonic building of the town hall and the public market collapsed during the September 7 earthquake , economic activities in the area carry on “as usual.”

Earthquake victims in Oaxaca still homeless

(Juchitán, Oaxaca – Photo: Roselia Chaca/EL UNIVERSAL)

Economic activities during December and the first week of January give the impression that nothing has changed yet the damaged buildings tell a different story.

Between 5 to 7 buildings in a block of 50 are nothing but rubble or have been shored to avoid collapsing. Reconstruction progress is slow; progress in the few buildings being rebuilt is, at the most, 50%.

Earthquake victims in Oaxaca still homeless

(Juchitán, Oaxaca – Photo: Roselia Chaca/EL UNIVERSAL)

Gonzalo Hernández is one of those who are still homeless fourth months after the quake. His family and he accepted the proposal of Carso Group to get a 4x12 meter home in exchange for the MXN$120,000 (USD$6,244 approx.) they were given in their Natural Disaster Fund card.

“We've been waiting for four months. The company said the issues are the material and the labor; land surveyors already came to take measurements of the house and trenches have already been dug but works haven't started,” he explains.

“We're desperate, tired of living under tarpaulin roofs, with the wind and the dust, but we have no other choice. We've already waited four months, what's a couple of weeks more?” he claims.

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