by the El Repartero news services
Relief International is deploying emergency relief and assessment teams to Peru to provide immediate assistance to survivors of this week’s powerful earthquake. The 8.0 magnitude quake struck in the evening of Wednesday, August 15, killing hundreds, injuring thousands and destroying homes, businesses and critical infrastructure. Harsh winter temperatures are making the situation even worse as survivors, afraid to return to their houses, sleep in the streets and wait in long lines for food and medical care.
Relief International’s Rapid Emergency Deployment (RED) Team went into action hours after the quake struck. The first team members – two medical doctors and an emergency medical technician (EMT) with search and rescue expertise will arrive in the disaster area on Sunday. They will collaborate with local officials, determine the most appropriate course of action, and begin delivering medical treatment to those in need.
RI emergency teams have responded to the world’s worst humanitarian disasters since 1990. RI’s response will begin with immediate emergency relief, but will soon transition into longer term efforts including shelter, infrastructure reconstruction, livelihood rebuilding, education and more. To do this, we need your help!
HOW DO YOU HELP
To help provide relief to victims of the earthquake in Peru please make monetary donations by phone, 1mail or online. 95 percent of all private contributions directly benefit the survivors through direct aid on the ground. Contributions of relief items and pharmaceuticals are also accepted.
Online:www.ri.org/Peru.
Phone: 1-800-573-3332 or 1-310-478-1200.
Mail: Make Check Payable to: Relief International – Peru Earthquake Relief, 1575 westwood Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90024. IRS Tax Exempt ID: 95-4300662.
Menem defeated in Argentine local elections
ARGENTINA – Local elections which took place in two provinces on 19 August produced victories both for the President Kirchner’s Frente para la Victoria (FV) and for Peronists opposed to Kirchner.
With 93 percent of votes counted in the province of La Rioja, incumbent governor and Kirchner candidate, Luis Beder Herrera, gained 42 percent of votes, followed by Ricardo Quintela with 28 percent, who was also running on the FV ticket. Dissident (“anti-K”) Peronist and former president Carlos Menem, came third with 22 percent.
In other related news in Argentina, Cristina launches candidacy amid corruption probe in Argentina The government launched its official presidential ticket, the “Cristina-Cobos” partnership, in a large political rally in Buenos Aires this week. Senator Cristina Fernández, and the governor of Mendoza, Julio Cobos, made much of the fact that they represented different political parties but shared the same vision: a united Argentina.
President Néstor Kirchner, who attended the rally with his entire cabinet, created the cross-party alliance in 2005 to provide a contrast with the “corrupt” administrations of the 1990s. This now rings hollow. Fernández is trying to steal back the political momentum less than eight weeks before the elections after the emergence of yet another official corruption case, which has the added twist of complicating relations with Venezuela.
