"It's been months since Maria Luisa Gonzalez and her husband have been able to harvest anything from their drought-parched land or catch fish in a lake that's become little more than a muddy puddle.
Like other Tarahumara Indians suffering from severe drought in Mexico's vast northern canyons, Gonzalez said she had yet to receive any aid last week, nearly two months after President Felipe Calderon said that he had assessed the drought's damage and his government was tending to the crisis.
The federal Interior Department declared a state of emergency in 37 Sierra Madre municipalities in the Tarahumara region on Jan. 3.
The first major batch of federal help showed up Thursday with great media fanfare, including Calderon and First Lady Margarita Zavala loading a navy plane with boxes of groceries on a rural landing strip in Chihuahua state, where the Tarahumara live in the crannies of a natural wonder that dwarfs the Grand Canyon.
'I want to emphasize the Sierra Tarahumara is a top priority in my administration,' Calderon said in a press conference, adding that the navy was delivering 119 tons of food.
Gonzalez, however, said such promises have been empty since their October crops yielded no corn potatoes or beans.
'We hadn't received anything,' the 67-year-old said. 'If this continues, we will starve to death because what are we going to eat? It's dry. The lake is dry.'
Calderon first said Dec. 1 that his government was on top of the crisis, caused by the worst drought to hit northern Mexico in 70 years. A trip to the region late last by The Associated Press showed families picking up private donations but nothing from the government. Even Chihuahua officials say the response has been slow. ---------------------
Everyone from Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard to political parties, running groups and everyday people have organized relief efforts for the Tarahumara. -------------------
Even with the arrival of trucks and planes of supplies, it's still difficult to reach people who live in the canyons, which are only accessible by foot or horse.
'There are thousands of communities,' Velasquez said. 'We can't reach all of them.'
The Tarahumara face shortages in food every winter because of the cold, harsh terrain they inhabit, and many migrate to the cities for the winter where they live on the streets. Malnutrition among the population is high, and the Health Department said in a 2009 document that the infant mortality rate among the Tarahumara was 95 out of 1000, more than five times Mexico's average rate, mostly because of malnutrition.
In the last year, their living conditions have grown much worse with the extreme drought. ------------------
Besides the state efforts, the Red Cross boosted food aid to that region from the five tons they normally deliver during the winter to 300 tons of canned food arriving in train cars in the past weeks.
Velasquez has received the food aid in the town of Guachochi, called the center of the Sierra Tarahumara, where state aid trucks sporadically arrive after hours of navigating narrow tracks of curvy mountain roads.
On a recent day, dozens of indigenous mulled around the patio of a house in Laguna de Aboreachi where the trailer parked with the food. Mothers breast-fed babies fastened to their bodies with hand-woven shawls while waiting in line to get packages of food and water bottles.
The lake of Aboreachi, where some residents used to fish for trout, is now a muddy pit. The lumber yard that used to employ indigenous residents has closed.
Macario Gomez, transportation director of the regional Mexican Red Cross, said he has seen a mobilization on behalf of the state of Chihuahua like no other year with more than 1,000 metric tons of food delivered.
'The Sierra is the Achilles' heel of the state government,' Gomez said.
Even with the aid, Gomez said, he is seeing increasingly more Indians walking five to six hours only to get some grain and water. He said some have to leave with their hands empty."
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