Mexico’s Disaster Response Crisis Amid Storms

Mexico — Tropical Storms Priscilla, Jerry, and Raymond are battering Mexico, while the absence of the FONDEN disaster fund and the lack of a national emergency system risk immediate and efficient attention to natural disasters.

Mexico is a country that confronts nature every year. Hurricanes, storms, earthquakes, landslides, and fires ravage entire communities, leaving behind the same landscape: devastation and waiting. But beyond facing the disaster, it also faces institutional abandonment.

In 2018, fifteen days before the end of Enrique Peña Nieto's administration, the Ministry of the Interior received a draft Official Mexican Standard (PROY-NOM-010-SEGOB-2016) that could have changed the way Mexico responds to the emergencies being experienced today from tropical storms Priscilla, Jerry, and Raymond: the Incident Command System (SCI). This is an internationally proven methodology used in the United States, Chile, and Colombia to coordinate rescue and disaster relief efforts with surgical precision. But at that time, the new government headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected it and left it dormant in the bureaucracy.

Three years later, in 2021, the same government extinguished the Natural Disaster Fund (FONDEN), the only financial and institutional mechanism that guaranteed immediate resources for states and municipalities hit by hurricanes, earthquakes, or floods. Since then, every disaster has been addressed without clear operating rules and with the promise that money is now delivered directly to the people.

Today, as tropical storms Priscilla, Jerry, and Raymond simultaneously strike Mexico, the country once again faces the same recurring tragedy: a territory violated by nature, stripped of a solid regulatory framework to guarantee a better-coordinated response to the emergencies that each year claim lives and devastate communities.

The Incident Command System That Mexico Let Pass

In the case of the implementation of the Incident Command System (SCI), the project published in the Official Diary of the Federation (DOF) was developed starting in 2016 by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of National Defense, the Navy Secretariat, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Mexican Red Cross, the National Chamber of Commerce, the Mexico City Ministry of Tourism; in addition to other public and private institutions and organizations.

The 35-page document, consulted by La Silla Rota, aimed to establish the basic requirements to be implemented for a coordinated response in incident management "through the correct application of the Incident Command System that must be complied with by all agencies and institutions of the public sector, as well as private and social service providers that require implementing this system for incident response and those that by their nature collaborate in mitigation, relief, and recovery actions following an emergency or disaster," reads the project.

However, on December 27, 2019, with Andrés Manuel López Obrador already as president, the then-Ministry of the Interior under Olga Sánchez Cordero admitted that the project was "of national relevance, however, it escapes the reality of our country given the conditions of infrastructure, culture, and education for the performance of the proposed activities."

In contrast, the Interior Ministry argued at the time that while the project was necessary, they could not simply make "a copy" of what was already established in the United States because it was important to consider "our own idiosyncrasies, the capacity for response, the infrastructure, and the organizational schemes that prevail in Mexico," reads the response and comments to this project. The Interior Ministry found that the document escaped all principles of congruence with the national reality and considered the gaps, resources, organization, language, terminology, equipment, training, homologation, infrastructure, legislation, methodologies, strategies, tactics, and techniques, in order to discard it.

Losing FONDEN and What It Means for Emergency Response

The Fideicomiso del Fondo de Desastres Naturales, known as FONDEN, was created in 1996 and began formal operations in 1999 as a budgetary mechanism designed to quickly and effectively support the rehabilitation of federal and state infrastructure affected by natural disasters, as well as to directly assist those affected.

The trust operated through the activation of emergency or natural disaster declarations, issued by the Ministry of the Interior. Once an emergency was declared, resources were released to immediately address the most urgent needs of the affected communities.

During its operation, FONDEN received funding through the Federal Expenditure Budget. Starting in 2011, it had an approximate annual allocation equivalent to 800 million dollars, establishing itself as a standard budgetary resource for disaster response in Mexico.

However, on October 21, 2021, the Senate of the Republic approved the extinction of 109 trusts, including FONDEN, arguing that there was mismanagement of resources by public officials, which cast doubt on the efficiency and transparency of these instruments. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended the decision, assuring that FONDEN had become a "bottomless barrel" from which resources were extracted and that in practice it did not guarantee adequate attention for victims or an effective response to emergencies in the country.

With the disappearance of FONDEN, Mexico lost an institutionalized financial mechanism to face natural disasters, leaving the country more vulnerable to extreme climate phenomena, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods, without a dedicated fund for immediate release to recover affected communities and infrastructure.

What the Official Mexican Standard for the Incident Command System Entailed

In the introduction of the project, it states that the Incident Command System (SCI) was developed in the 1970s in response to a series of large wildfires in Southern California, United States of America. During this period, the involved local, state, and federal authorities and agencies gathered to form the Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies (FIRESCOPE).

FIRESCOPE identified problems that can arise when different groups participate in the same emergency mission, such as a lack of standardization in the terminology used, the inability to scale and restrict the incident management structure, the absence of standardization and integration in communications media, and the lack of appropriate facilities.

What happened after so many wildfires in the United States is that the absence of consolidated action plans and unified efforts to resolve these difficulties was identified, as is observed today with the passage of the recent tropical storms.

In point 3.19 of the draft Official Mexican Standard, comprehensive risk management is detailed as a set of actions aimed at the identification, analysis, evaluation, control, and reduction of risks, involving all three levels of government, as well as sectors of society, which facilitates the implementation of actions directed at the creation and implementation of public policies, strategies, and procedures that combat the structural causes of disasters and strengthen the resilience or resistance capacities of society.

The SCI project involves the stages of risk identification and/or their formation process, forecasting, prevention, mitigation, preparation, relief, recovery, and reconstruction, and a total of 63 organized groups for different tasks, such as, for example, radio identification. It also defines temporary locations for airplane and helicopter landings, responsible parties for finances and their administration, and establishes the role of a Public Information Officer responsible for the flow of information between the incident and the community, thereby closing the gaps opened by disinformation.

Today, as tropical storms Priscilla, Jerry, and Raymond batter the country, Mexico once again faces the harsh reality of its vulnerability: entire communities at the mercy of nature, lives and property at risk, and a State lacking all the essential normative and financial tools to respond with speed and efficacy. The SCI remains archived and FONDEN is gone.

Context: Two years ago, Hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco, leaving a trail of destruction that confronted the country with the urgency of having clear protocols and immediate resources to address disasters. Today, Mexico again faces torrential rains, strong winds, and high surf from tropical storms Priscilla, Jerry, and Raymond, while the Official Mexican Standard for the Incident Command System remains archived and FONDEN was eliminated.

Source: La Silla Rota