The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY KEVIN SIEFF

AND LATESHIA BEACHUM

mexico c ity — A t least 27 people
were killed in an attack in the
Mexican state of Veracruz when
assailants apparently locked the
doors and emergency exits of the
popular White Horse Nightclub
and s et t he building on f ire.
The attack late Tuesday came
during a year of record violence
for Mexico, which registered
14,603 homicides from January
through June. The Mexican gov-
ernment under President Andrés
Manuel López Obrador has strug-
gled to piece together an effective
security strategy as criminal or-
ganizations claim new ground,
killing members of rival groups
and c ivilians in t he process.
López Obrador condemned the
attack Wednesday — and suggest-
ed that authorities might have
been complicit i n it.
“This is the most inhuman
thing possible,” López Obrador
said. “It is regrettable that orga-
nized crime acts in this manner.

... It i s more regrettable that there
may be collusion with authori-
ties.”
Photos of the bar taken in the
aftermath of the attack show a

charred interior with bodies on

the ground. People were seen em-

bracing outside the bar, behind

police tape.

Some early reports indicated

that the fire was started with

homemade bombs. López Obra-

dor, in his morning news confer-

ence, said “the criminals went in,

closed the doors, the emergency

exits, a nd s et f ire to the place.”

“The majority died of suffoca-

tion,” Veracruz Gov. Cuitláhuac

García told the “Sergio y Lupita”

radio program Wednesday morn-

ing.

The bar is in the port city of

Coatzacoalcos, which has been

plagued by violence, caused in

part by fractures within the Zetas

criminal organization. Last week,

a 4-month-old child was critically

wounded in a shootout.

In recent years, Mexico has

faced t he dual challenges of t rying

to build a large, effective security

force capable of c racking d own on

crime and also a judicial system

that can hold the guilty account-

able. On both fronts it has strug-

gled, with Veracruz a jarring ex-

ample. The state police force is

61 percent smaller than it should

be, López Obrador said this

month.

The state on the Gulf of Mexico

was supposed to receive 7,

members of the newly formed na-

tional guard, drawn from a mix of

different f ederal and state security

agencies. But many of those offi-

cers have been dispatched on an

immigration enforcement mis-

sion, part of the U.S.-Mexico deal

to reduce the number of migrants

arriving at the U.S. border. López

Obrador, w ho created t he national

guard, once spoke of it as a poten-

tial vanguard in the fight against

organized c rime.

Other parts of Mexico have also

seen dramatic violence in recent

weeks. Cartels were blamed for a

gruesome attack this month in the

western city of Uruapan, where 19

mutilated corpses were left o n dis-

play. A Catholic priest, the Rev.

José Martín Guzmán Vega, was

stabbed to death last week in the

northern city of Matamoros.

Across the country, four journal-

ists have been killed in the past

month alone.

“The fact t hat 2019 is on pace to

be the most violent year does not

come out of nowhere. We have

seen how violence has been pro-

gressively increasing,” said Fran-

cisco R ivas, director g eneral of t he

National Citizen O bservatory, a re-

search group. The increase, he

said, is the result of an “incapacity

of the state, lack of identification

of the p roblem, with no clear goals

or strategies.”

“The president says we are im-

proving, but we are worse than

ever before.”

Within hours of Tuesday’s at-

tack, López O brador s uggested t he

perpetrator had previously been

“arrested a nd r eleased.”

“There is a problem that needs

to be investigated regarding the

actions of t he prosecutor’s o ffice in

Veracruz, and we are telling the

attorney general to look into this

matter,” he said.

López O brador d id n ot mention

anyone by name, but he appeared

to be referring t o a statement f rom

García, the Veracruz governor,

who tweeted about the man he

suggested was behind t he attack.

“The indications of the deplor-

able crime in the Coatzacoalcos

bar s uggest t hat one o f the m ateri-

al authors is Ricardo ‘N’ a.k.a. ‘la

loca’ who was detained by Vera-

cruz security forces in July of this

year and was released in less than

48 hours by the state attorney

general,” García wrote.

The state attorney general

promptly put o ut a statement c on-

tradicting G arcía’s account.

“A t ragedy should n ot be used to

distort facts and confuse public

opinion,” Veracruz Attorney Gen-

eral Jorge Winckler Ortíz said.

He went on to say that Ricardo

“N” was twice detained and re-

leased by the federal government

— on July 18 and Aug. 7 — not the

state attorney general’s o ffice. The

dispute shed light on fractures

within Mexico’s judicial system,

with blame shifting between state

and f ederal authorities.

Authorities in Veracruz said

they were still searching for the

attackers.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Mary Beth Sheridan and Gabriela

Martinez contributed to this report.

More than 2 dozen killed in fiery attack on Mexican bar

ANGEL HERNANDEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Distraught people are seen outside a bar where at least 27 died in a

fire Tuesday in Coatzacoalcos, in Mexico’s Veracruz state.

BY MARINA LOPES

sao paulo, brazil — A haze of
toxic smoke clouds the tropical
city of Porto Velho. Now patients
are flooding its health centers.
During the first three weeks of
August, the Cosme and Damião
Children’s H ospital in Porto Velho
admitted more than 400 children
with respiratory problems —
three times the average, accord-
ing to officials. Brazil’s n orthwest-
ern state of Acre reported 47,
cases of respiratory illnesses dur-
ing the same period. Lines at
public health clinics are growing,
and officials say they’re scram-
bling to hire more staff.
As fires spike across the Ama-
zon rainforest, an environmental
challenge is becoming a public

health hazard.

“Every year we have some fires

and issues with smoke, but this

was the worst year of them all,”

said Izaura de Campos, a pediatri-

cian in Porto Velho. “This is the

year when we are finally seeing

what we are breathing.”

Children and the elderly are

most susceptible to smoke-relat-

ed illnesses, doctors say, but any-

one who inhales the pollutants

can be affected. The toxics can

hinder breathing and oxygen flow

and exacerbate chronic condi-

tions s uch as asthma and bronchi-

tis. Prolonged exposure can in-

crease the risk of some cancers.

“Just one day’s exposure to

these pollutants has a critical im-

pact on health,” s aid Marcos Abdo

Arbex, a pulmonologist in Sao

Paulo state who specializes in en-

vironmental diseases.

For those who live downwind

of the flames, there’s no escape.

Authorities in Porto Velho are

telling residents to avoid exercise,

stay inside and shut their win-

dows.

Sarah Nachiro keeps her family

inside and her windows closed.

Still, she said, her 4-month-old

son, Henrique, has suffered from

coughing fits so strong he has

turned purple. Weeks of colds and

shortness of breath have left him

on antibiotics. Sarah herself has

been to the emergency room

twice with asthma. She faults the

government response for the ef-

fects on the country’s health.

“It’s a crime,” s he said. “A com-

plete lack of respect for the popu-

lation as a whole but especially

with the children.”

Campos said she has seen twice

as many patients complaining of

respiratory issues and colds as

usual.

Fires in the Amazon are com-

mon during the dry season, but

this year has been exceptional.

More than 25,000 fires have been

spotted in the rainforest in Au-

gust alone, a nine-year high, ac-

cording to Brazil’s National Insti-

tute for Space Research.

The fires, many of them set by

farmers and loggers to clear land,

are at the center of a growing

international dispute between

Brazilian President Jair Bolson-

aro and other world leaders.

Bolsonaro campaigned for

president last year on promises to

open the rainforest to more devel-

opment. The platform was popu-

lar in a country struggling

through years of economic stag-

nation.

Since his inauguration in Janu-

ary, deforestation has surged. He

has blocked new environmental

protections and is accused of lax

enforcement.

World leaders have described

the Amazon as a global resource, a

key defense against climate

change. It accounts for a quarter

of the carbon dioxide absorbed by

the world’s forests.

Scientists warn that deforesta-

tion is approaching a tipping

point — between 20 percent and

25 percent — when the degrada-

tion could become irreversible,

and rainforest could become sa-

vanna.

French President Emmanuel

Macron this week announced a

$22 million package from the

Group of Seven nations to help

fight the fires. Bolsonaro, a cli-

mate change skeptic, questioned

their intentions; his government

so far has rejected the offer.

Porto Velho’s s tate of Rondonia

has been scorched by 4,600 fires

this month. The government has

sent 400 soldiers and dozens of

firefighters to the region; military

planes have showered water on

the fires surrounding the city.

Campos, the pediatrician, said

the government isn’t doing

enough.

“It’s a massive level of negli-

gence,” s he said. “We don’t s ee any

effective measures to put a stop to

it. People need to be more con-

scious of the impact this has on

the children.”

In a meeting with Bolsonaro on

Tuesday, Amazon state governors

on Tuesday called for federal help

fighting the fires. But they also

stressed that environmental pro-

tection should not get in the way

of economic development.

“We can’t p rotect our rivers and

forests in poverty,” said Helder

Zahluth Barbalho, governor of

Para state. “A s long as our people

are hungry, we can’t conserve.”

Arbex, the pulmonologist,

warned that environmental de-

gradation also has a cost.

“You cannot put a price tag on

the suffering that individuals will

experience,” he said. “But there is

also a rise in costs for people and

the government.

“If there is a huge increase in

emergency room visits and hospi-

talizations, serving that popula-

tion will be more costly.”

[email protected]

Amazon fires create

public health hazard

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