Don’t Ignore Guatemala
Natural disasters are something that happen in every part of the world. The horrific volcano in Guatemala, otherwise known as Fuego Volcano was heartbreaking for hundreds of thousands of native people that lost their homes and lives. The death toll is continuously increasing as time goes on due to the high amounts of ash in the air. Being a part of South America, I don’t think the Guatemalan government did what they were supposed to quick enough when it came to handling a disaster like this in my opinion. But instead like most countries, they decided to wait to respond to the disaster, which in my opinion could’ve been strategic. Many countries do this where they don’t respond as quickly to disasters. In my last article I talked about Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” https://focalizalaatencion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/tsd_nk.pdf. If you’re unfamiliar with disaster capitalism, then you may not understand what I mean. Sometimes, governments strategically don’t respond as quickly to disasters so that they can wait to make more money from them. They’ll employ this sort of economic “shock treatment”, as Klein states to introduce new things after a disaster that they could’ve easily implemented beforehand. I am not saying that that’s what the Guatemalan government is doing, but I do think it’s important to think about why they didn’t respond as quickly.
From the outside we saw this Fuego Volcano destroy the land that is Guatemala and ruin lives and homes. Fuego Volcano took place recently this late spring and early summer starting on June 3, 2018 and continuing to spread lava and ash. It affected many areas on Guatemala including San Miguel Los Lotes and La Reunion Golf Course and Residences. People are still in danger from the pyroclastic flow. Automatically you would think that with a volcano this large, there would be all kinds of assistance ready for the residents in the disaster, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. Instead, I felt like they decided not to immediately warn or response in the way that they could have. So many governments do this in different countries. I feel like they waited to see just how they could fix things and maybe even profit. I said this in my last article talking about Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Now when I mentioned Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine”, this is what I am talking about. It’s not even just finding ways to profit when talking about disaster capitalism. It’s also about the way and the timing in their responses to these disasters. It could be strategically planned that they don’t respond. Like I said, I’m not saying Guatemala’s government did this but I’m just trying to offer insight as to why they decided not to respond immediately https://www.cbsnews.com/news/guatemala-volcano-fuego-prosecutors-investigate-emergency-response/. In addition to finding ways to profit off of disaster is what disaster capitalism is all about. Klein uses different examples of disasters and also critiques Milton Friedman to show the correlations that these situations have. And with my own analysis, even Guatemala is also another one of the countries that has been affected by disaster capitalism and this shock therapy. The relationship here is that the government and other companies will wait to help with a disaster if at all. Now the government has definitely stepped in to help the citizens of Guatemala, but many are criticizing their timing. A journalist with BBC writes about this https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44393085. Usually by doing this, they are giving themselves time to enforce different policies all at once. Here with Fuego Volcano, I feel like this is has the potential to be a big issue. I feel like companies and countries will try to enforce things in Guatemala so that the citizens will have no choice but to adjust which is ridiculous. Mariana Sanchez also writes about this https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/guatemala-volcano-eruption-anger-lack-government-warnings-180611075406833.html. My main concern was the delay in response to the volcano but also the lack of governmental warnings. I feel like the Guatemalan government could’ve had certain measures in place to help the citizens be prepared for something like this. This is an issue I have with many countries. They wait and wait and wait until something happens to start trying to implement certain measures. It could easily be done beforehand. This is something that now, the victims and citizens are still facing and suffering from. Like I said, the death toll has increased since the first eruption. I’m not saying that I know all the solutions, but I do want to provide the citizens of Guatemala the knowledge and insight they deserve in regards to how people are responding to their misfortune and this disaster. They need to know how their government is or isn’t being responsible.
I just want the people of Guatemala to be informed. I know they are suffering right now and I would be angry knowing my government could’ve put things in place to help the citizens better, but failed to do so. I’d be even more upset knowing they didn’t respond as fast as they could or should have. It’s sad because you can only do so much with the resources that you have. But I think that the government can do a little better by its citizens and victims. I would hope that is what the Guatemalan would want to do. This all relates to what Klein was saying about disaster capitalism and shock therapy. It’s about who can help their country stay prepared and respond ready with assistance. The victims of these disasters, should be better informed and helped faster when they need it the most.
