Spending cuts to disaster funds hurt Mexico’s earthquake response
Mexico needs to focus on rebuilding after two earthquakes which killed more than 430 people. However, budget cuts to several disaster funds are hampering the country's recovery.
Preliminary accounting of the damage caused by the two big earthquakes that hit Mexico this month could cost upward of $2 billion (38.1 billion pesos), President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Wednesday.
Spending cuts and a failure by Mexico's president to upgrade an earthquake alert system hurt life-saving prevention programmes and amplified recovery costs after two major temblors this month, current and former government officials said.
Although President Enrique Pena Nieto is eager to show a prompt and competent response to the earthquakes, which killed more than 430 people, the budget of recovery agencies is threadbare due to cost-cutting by his administration.
The government has slashed disaster budgets by as much as 50 percent in recent years, part of a broader cost-cutting effort to make up for shortfalls caused by a drop in oil revenues, which finance about 20 percent of Mexico's federal budget.
The 2017 budget alone reduced funding for Mexico's various disaster and civil protection efforts by 25 percent, from about 8.6 billion pesos ($475 million) in 2016 to 6.4 billion pesos.
TRT World's Ediz Tiyansan has more
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