Mexico City, Mexico — Mexico’s Air Force this week delivered a shipment of humanitarian aid to Turkey following the devastating, 7.7 magnitude earthquake that rocked the country on Monday. The death toll in the two countries has surpassed 19,000.
The humanitarian mission was instructed by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who, during his routine press conference hours on Tuesday, said his administration was organizing resources to attend the aftermath of the earthquakes in Turkey.
“Today in the morning, we instructed the Foreign Ministry with the Navy and the Ministry of Defense to organize the help that can be offered, that can be provided,” the president said at the time. “There is a team, both in the Ministry of Defense and in the Navy, specializing in saving lives of trapped people, and we are going to organize ourselves to help.”
The humanitarian commission is integrated by 150 people; 93 Army troops, 37 from the Mexican Navy, 15 from the Red Cross, and five Foreign Ministry officials.
Within the team are medical and food service units, 35 search-and-rescue experts, and 16 rescue dogs.
Through his Twitter account, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard recalled the importance of international solidarity during the earthquakes that resulted in the death of thousands in Mexico.
“Mexico is doing this in homage to its tradition of solidarity in support of other peoples and, of course, bearing in mind what the experience was both in 1985 and 2017 of international solidarity,” he said.
Through his Twitter account, Ebrard briefed that the Mexican rescue team arrived in the city of Andayama in east Turkey on February 8, a critical point where Turkish authorities assigned the task force. The following day the Mexican team had rescued the first person.
“Moments ago, they rescued the first person alive from the rubble in Adiyaman, Turkey. We support with hope always!”
Through social media, Turkey’s embassy in Mexico has requested help from the Mexican population, asking for assistance to gather goods such as winter clothes, food, and medical aid.
