PERU:
Distribution of
Earthquake Aid Under
Scrutiny
By Ángel Páez
PISCO, Peru, (IPS) -
Mayor Juan Mendoza seems
perfectly at home. "Juanito,
I need a coffin," "Juanito,
we need tents in my
barrio," "Juanito, the
food’s run out in my
neighbourhood," local
residents clamour as
they cluster around him.
The thunderous noise of
rubble being removed,
the dust infiltrating
everywhere and strong
winds are part of the
scenery in this ghost
town, frozen into
immobility since Aug.
15, when it was shaken
by the earthquake that
reached magnitude 7 on
the Richter scale.
Mendoza is the most
powerful man in this
devastated southern
province of Pisco. He
strolls through the
streets, which are
little more than long
lines of rubble, taking
in the scene of
destruction. Obviously,
he understands the
leadership role that
misfortune and disaster
have thrust upon him.
"They’re always wanting
something," he told IPS
while crossing the main
square, which he has
made his centre of
operations because the
national and
international press have
taken up their stations
there. "Whenever you
give them something,
they come back asking
for more," he said.
He is the one who
decides where the food
parcels go, which
families can move into
the shelters, where to
begin rebuilding, and
who gets to the head of
the line. He even
decides what kinds of
clothes go to one place
or another.
This centralisation of
decision-making is now
under investigation. The
allegations against the
mayor for fraudulent
handling of aid for the
earthquake victims
resulted in the
comptroller general of
the Republic, Genaro
Matute, travelling to
the disaster area with a
team of investigators.
"We found that the mayor
himself was personally
distributing the aid,
and that he concentrated
so much power that it
was preventing the food
and clothing from
reaching the people who
were most in need,"
Matute told IPS.
Vexed by the control
exercised on his
activities, the mayor
sought support from
President Alan García,
arguing that the
oversight and monitoring
were slowing down aid
distribution and
reconstruction work.
García publicly
undermined Matute’s
investigation. "How dull
and stupid of people to
believe that the mayor
would hand out food and
clothes to his
favourites, and make the
rest of the population
wait," García said.
"Are they saying that
I’m stealing the
donations and giving
them to my relatives and
friends? Listen, my
heart is not made of
stone. I would have to
be truly perverse to
take food and clothes
from the people.
Besides, my sister died
in the earthquake. I
couldn’t steal from
people who are suffering
as I am," Mendoza
claimed in self-defence.
The mayor won the
provincial elections in
November 2006 with just
27 percent of the vote.
In a province with a
population of over
150,000, 18,000 people
voted for him. But the
disaster has conferred
more power on him.
While he talked to IPS,
some passersby called
out to him, "Juanito,
we’re hungry!" "Don’t
take it all home with
you!" "Leave something
for the poor!" Mendoza
just smiled.
"Why don’t you go to the
shantytowns? People
there are complaining
that you are
concentrating everything
in the city of Pisco,"
IPS asked him.
"There’s enough for
everybody, but, please
understand, the aid
can’t reach everybody at
once. Not even God can
do that," he answered.
According to Matute, the
provincial authorities
in Pisco did not plan
the distribution of aid,
which was counter to the
interests of thousands
of people living in the
crowded shantytowns on
the outskirts of the
city.
"There was no
distribution system,
they handed out goods
without recording who
had received aid and
without knowing who was
still in need. Such
chaotic disorganisation
obviously hurts those
who most need the aid,"
Matute said. "Under
these conditions,
corruption could occur."
Official statistics
indicate that up until
Aug. 30, the death toll
from the earthquake was
519 people. Nearly 1,400
were injured and 45,000
lost everything.
Material damages
amounted to millions of
dollars.
Non-governmental
organisations say that
40 people are still
unaccounted for.
The earthquake epicentre
was in the Pacific
ocean, close to the
shores of the provinces
of Pisco, Ica and
Chincha.
According to Matute, his
investigators have
discovered that "city
councillors in the
governments in Pisco and
Cañete (in Lima
province) have taken
donated food home, or
given it to people close
to them, to the
detriment of those who
were hardest hit by the
earthquake."
Residents of Grocio
Prado, a crowded
district of Chincha
which suffered 80
percent destruction in
the earthquake, went to
Lima to complain that
their mayor, Carlos
Torres, was helping
himself to the aid
donations.
In Grocio Prado, a
collection of a dozen
shantytowns housing
15,000 people, IPS
listened to harsh
criticism of Torres. "He
never comes here," said
local residents in San
Benito. "As far as we’re
concerned, the mayor
might as well be dead,"
they said in Yataco.
"He only hands out the
provisions to his
relatives and cronies,"
people said in El
Porvenir, where all the
houses were flattened.
The mayor was in the
main square of Grocio
Prado. "All the
accusations against me
are false. We have
organised the people so
that they elect
coordinators, who
collect and distribute
the aid we receive,"
Torres told IPS.
"The people who are
protesting are those who
haven’t organised
themselves properly, and
that’s why they’re not
receiving the goods," he
said. As he was
speaking, some local
people drew near,
shouting out "liar" and
"fraud, don’t keep all
the food and clothes,"
while others clustered
round and defended him.
"You can’t please
everybody," said the
mayor, who was nattily
dressed, with polished
black shoes.
The civil defence forces
have not arrived in
Grocio Prado, where
people are removing the
rubble with their bare
hands. The area is under
military control, as are
the other places in the
south that were affected
by the earthquake.
Storage sites for water,
food, tents, mattresses,
and medicine are being
guarded by the armed
forces.
President García made it
clear that the armed
forces were there not
only to prevent looting,
but also to command the
operations.
"An earthquake is like a
war situation arising
from a foreign
invasion," García said.
"In situations like this
we need a single chain
of command, with less
democracy and a more
vertical command
structure."
Perhaps this was why he
appointed businessman
Julio Favre to head the
Reconstruction Fund for
the Southern Areas (FORSUR)
without consulting any
of the authorities in
the regions affected by
the earthquake.
Favre, a follower of ex
President Alberto
Fujimori (1990-2000) and
formerly head of Peru’s
largest business
association, is on
excellent terms with the
military top brass and
with sectors of the
Catholic Church close to
the conservative Opus
Dei organisation. Until
the appointment he was
an unofficial adviser of
García’s.
Rómulo Treviño, the
governor of Ica region,
which covers the
majority of the
earthquake damage zone,
said that "FORSUR is a
true image of complete
centralisation." In
response, he established
the Ica Corporation for
Reconstruction and
Development.
"To some politicians,
capitalism is a
perversion in which the
few exploit the many,
and the labour of the
many enriches the few.
Such a stupid idea might
have had some merit a
hundred years ago,"
Favre wrote in an
opinion column.
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