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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2005 
Mexican Marines Were Prepared to Do More
 Edwin Garcia - Mercury News
| | A dog finds himself stuck in the muck of contaminated floodwaters in the Industrial Canal in eastern New Orleans. |
Biloxi, Miss. - The Mexican marines who landed on the Mississippi coast as part of an unprecedented hurricane relief effort brought 300 specialized personnel eager to rescue victims, administer medical treatment and even help locals recover the dead.
Instead, the camouflage-wearing marines, with blue vests bearing the word "MARINA" printed in white letters across their chests, spent most of their five days in Biloxi handing out bottles of water, clearing up debris from a school and moving supply boxes.
Political points
Their voyage to the Gulf Coast nonetheless could score much-needed political points for Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent years trying to get the attention of President Bush and Congress in his persistent push for immigration laws favorable to Mexicans in the United States.
Fox offered his marines shortly after Hurricane Katrina blew a disastrous path through southern Mississippi and Louisiana, as part of an international relief effort that includes troops from Canada and the Netherlands.
The Mexican marines, who departed for home Wednesday, sailed to Biloxi aboard the 440-foot Papaloapan, a troop-landing ship with a mobile hospital, an ambulance and two helicopters. The ship had originally headed to New Orleans, where the crew was ready to help with search-and-rescue activities, but it was diverted to the Mississippi coast, where the need for their expertise was less dire.
The relief effort marked the first time since the Mexican-American War in 1846 that Mexican troops had been assigned north of the Rio Grande. Also sent to help was a Mexican army convoy, which crossed into Texas to help evacuee efforts.
"Fox wants to do whatever he can to make sure immigration reform doesn't fall by the wayside," said Princeton University sociology Professor Douglas Massey, who studies migration from Mexico. "And sending troops to help a neighborhood in need is a goodwill gesture, of course, but it also helps boost Mexico's image."
Marines focus on aid
But politics was furthest from the minds of the marines, who worked side by side with the U.S. Navy before departing for home.
At Biloxi's First Baptist Church, which is doubling as a massive Red Cross relief center, two doctors sorted boxes of prescription medicine, a radio specialist helped load boxes onto pushcarts, and several marines distributed bottles of water to motorists in a drive-through lane formed by boxes of supplies.
"We hope that our assistance will be as valuable as the help provided by rescuers," said Dr. Eduardo Valdés González, a surgeon. His role, and that of Dr. José Manuel Secaida Arredondo, a pediatrician, was limited in the Sunday school room turned pharmacy, because they lacked English skills to read the specifications on medications.
The marines in the parking lot took on various duties, from taking canned food to cars to unloading trailers, to moving hamburger buns from one crate to another.
Marine Lamberto Escobar, who worked the aftermath of December's tsunami, gripped the wheelchair of 75-year-old Betty Price, waiting in a shady area before pushing her to her car.
"This time the job has been easy," Escobar said. "But on other occasions, we've had a very difficult assignment, digging for bodies and transporting the injured."
Price, a Gulfport, Miss., resident whose home sustained major water damage through the roof, was grateful for the help. "That's the way it's supposed to be; when you help somebody, the Lord will bless you."
The irony of Mexican troops in the United States was not lost on the few U.S. relief workers of Mexican descent.
"It's so unusual they're coming to the United States," said Andres "Andy" Hernandez, a First Baptist Church member who oversaw the unloading of the trailers. "Usually it's the other way around." |
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