A Country of Tragedies

“A Country of Tragedies” was the title of a recent Prensa Libre news article. The article detailed why Guatemala is considered a country of high risk for natural disasters. Guatemala sits on three tectonic plates, suffers landslides and sinkholes, has an active chain of volcanoes, experiences heavy and prolonged periods of rainfall, and is in the path of tropical storms and hurricanes.

In the time that I have been here, I have seen numerous landslides, experienced a handful of earthquakes, been evacuated twice from my site for hurricanes, experienced nonstop downpours that have lasted for over a week, seen Tactic flood, and watched a couple of volcanoes erupt. And I have only been in Guatemala for a year and a half.

Fortunately excluding the flood, in which some 20 families had to be evacuated from their homes by rescue workers, these other occurrences that I have witnessed were all relatively minor. But a devastating “natural” disaster hit close to home at the beginning of January.

On January 4, a huge landslide, which lasted for 10 minutes, was composed of 10 million metric tons of earth and spanned an area of 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile), occurred on a road just outside of San Cristóbal Verapaz, Alta Verapaz, a neighboring municipality to Tactic. Rescue workers have recovered 38 bodies from the debris, and estimates range from a dozen to more than 50 people still missing. Efforts to search for others were called off yesterday, though, because the area was declared too unstable. Authorities have no hope of finding anyone alive.

The landslide took place on Route 7W on the portion between Chicamán, El Quiché and San Cristóbal. 7W runs from Huehuetenango to Santa Cruz Verapaz, Alta Verapaz and is the only connecting east/west route north of the capital. The road is currently dirt, and there has been ongoing construction for years to pave it (it has been under construction the whole time I have been here).

The Chixoy-Polochic fault line runs under the portion of Route 7W were the landslide occurred (this major fault also runs directly under Tactic), and the government line is that seismic activity on the fault caused the landslide. I am sure the fault was a key factor, but to completely blame the landslide on seismic activity is a major evasion of the truth.

I have been on Route 7W and have passed through the area where the landslide happened. I am not an engineer, but I could tell you after seeing that road, which is being dug out of the side of a mountain in a region where it rains heavily year-round and lies on a fault line, that it was a disaster waiting to happen. And a disaster did happen, but I don’t think it can be categorized as a “natural” one.

A smaller landslide occurred in the same spot of Route 7W on December 14, 2008, killing two people and leaving three other people still missing. That first landslide had blocked the road but it was not “closed” as the BBC, Reuters, and many other news organizations have erroneously reported. Public transportation was still running on the route. Buses would take passengers up to one side of the landslide, everyone would get off the bus and walk the distance of the blocked area, and then they would board another bus on the other side. The people caught in the landslide of January 4 were travelers moving between Alta Verapaz and El Quiché, residents of the surrounding villages, and laborers who work on nearby coffee farms who were crossing the area on foot.

Families from the aldeas (villages) of Aquil Grande, Aquil Pequeño, Los Chorros y La Independencia near the landslide have been evacuated because the area is too unsafe. Many others who live one side of where the landslide occurred are trapped on the opposing side and do not have the financial means to get back home. Now that the area is completely impassable, the only way for people to travel between Chicamán and San Cristóbal is to go south down through the capital and loop back around as shown highlighted in red on the map below. This is a 10+ hour expensive trip.

Local charities are providing food and clothing for the displaced and evacuated. Red Cross workers and police officers from all over Alta Verapaz are hauling unidentified dead bodies from the landslide and placing them in the San Cristóbal cemetery for family members to claim them. Guatemalan officials are planning on changing the path of Route 7W. The whole community of San Cristóbal is in shock and grieving.

This tragedy was not a freak act of nature. It was caused by gross human error. And someone should be held accountable.