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Buildings are surrounded by debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis Felix Marquez/PA Images

Death toll rises to 39 in Mexico following devastating Category 5 Hurricane Otis

The toll has risen from the previous figure of 27.

MEXICO’S CIVIL DEFENCE authorities have raised the death toll from the Category 5 Hurricane Otis to 39.

The storm’s human toll – which was initially 27 dead – is becoming a point of contention as local media reported the recovery of more bodies.

Hundreds of families have been awaiting word on their loved ones after the storm struck the country’s southern Pacific coast early on Wednesday.

Mexico’s security secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said in a recorded video message with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador posted to the platform X that the cause of death for the 39 was “suffocation by submersion”.

But she added that investigations continue and that the victims had not yet been identified.

Rodriguez said the number of missing has increased to 10.

In Acapulco yesterday, government workers and volunteers cleared streets, petrol station queues wrapped around the block for what gas was to be had, and some lucky families found food essentials as a more organised relief operation took shape four days after Hurricane Otis.

The aid has been slow to arrive.

The Category 5 storm’s destruction cut off the city of nearly one million people for the first day and it intensified so quickly on Tuesday that little to nothing had been staged in advance.

Authorities had the difficult task of searching for the dead and missing. Many had remained incredulous that the government’s initial death toll of 27 and four missing had not risen in the past two days.

One military official said authorities in his area had found at least six bodies while his unit had found one.

It had been difficult to find bodies because they were often covered in trees and other debris, he said. He was certain there were more deaths than the 27 reported, but said that even security forces had not been provided an updated figure.

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    Mute B Collins
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:23 PM

    So sad.

    29
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    Mute jon-boy55
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    Apr 9th 2015, 8:57 PM

    All for oil. Disgusting!

    3
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    Mute sonny black
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:19 PM

    Shocking stuff altogether.

    19
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    Mute Top Cat
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:27 PM

    Just a horrendous situation. I wonder will Hussein Obama still tout Yemen as one of his “great foreign policy success stories”?

    17
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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    Apr 9th 2015, 1:52 PM

    What is happening is the continuation of the Sunni/Shia conflict that originated following the death of Mahomed when the religion split on the interpretation of how Islam would develop. This conflict is being acted out in a modern weapon context. For them the normal rules of war do not exist.

    17
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    Mute paddy dunne
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    Apr 9th 2015, 2:28 PM

    Indeed: a Kalashnikov makes a mighty warrior out of a little kid in todays world and the dastardly British and french liberated the Arabs from the gentle rule of the ottomans who had kept the lid on religious strife for centuries. By the way- does anybody think hitler would have paid for the oil or be coerced by suicide bombers?

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    Mute Pat O'Dwyer
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    Apr 9th 2015, 1:19 PM

    Gaining a better understanding of what is happening in Yemen today , and why .
    Yemen – the Big Picture. US Sponsored Civil Wars
    Peter Koenig, economist and geopolitical analyst, worked in Yemen in the 1990s and early 2000s.
    “Yemen is a patchwork of tribes, the result of former colonies, therefore made vulnerable for conflicts; easily ignitable conflicts. A situation left behind on purpose by the old British colonial masters, today servants to the Washington Empire. That’s the name of the game throughout the Middle East – and eventually throughout the world. Divide and rule, ( a strategy successfully implemented in N.Ireland for many years)– by Zionist-Anglo-Saxon organized and never-ending chaos.
    It is certainly true, where ever the US and its NATO cronies put their heavy boots, they create lasting misery and chaos. But these never-ending implanted internal conflicts and civil wars in far-away countries are produced by design, not to end soon. They are multi-benefit endeavors, lubricating the US war machine, assuring the ‘need’ for US intervention and occupation, and they are paving the way for US / western transnational corporations’ unabated and merciless exploitation of the victims’ riches, looting their natural resources and enslaving their people. The globalized warriors, the emperor’s proxy armies, NATO and NATO-CIA trained mercenaries encounter little resistance from the population. People oppressed by civil strife have no time and energy to defend their rights, resources and country. They must fight for their sheer survival.”
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/yemen-the-big-picture/5440957

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Apr 9th 2015, 1:36 PM

    “It is certainly true, where ever the US and its NATO cronies put their heavy boots, they create lasting misery and chaos.”

    I’m sure the people liberated from Nazi occupation in N.W and S. Europe, from Japanese occupation in the Pacific region and from communist occupation in Korea would beg to differ with that assertion.

    Honestly, I read that entire article and couldn’t find a single piece of evidence to back up the author’s claims. It’s one long opinion piece with absolutely zero facts in there. All it amounts to is the angry ranting of someone who obviously has an issue with both the US and backing up arguments.

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    Mute Patrick J O'CONNOR
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    Apr 10th 2015, 1:27 AM

    @Pat O’D Also to get a better understanding of fantasy vs. reality see more of Peter Koenig’s make-belief,-
    “The Kouachi brother, as well as Amedy Coulibaly, the suspect in the hostage drama of the Hyper Cacher food market in eastern Paris, whose identities and past activities were well recorded in French police files, were most likely pre-identified as perpetrators of the probable pre-meditated murderous attacks that left 17 people dead within three days of horror in Paris; attacks so well organized and carried out that they could easily wear the stamp of French special forces, CIA, Mossad or all three of them – because, cui bono – who benefits? – Perhaps the Masters of all three of them?’

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    Mute culloden84
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:44 PM

    Brutality of Islamic state.It shows no mercy,not even towards innocent children.

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    Mute Deco James Connolly
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:30 PM

    How many have been killed by previous drone strikes ?

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    Mute Enda Elvery
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:29 PM

    Who is guilty of starting all this trouble in the Middle East.

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    Mute Niall
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    Apr 9th 2015, 12:59 PM

    Yeah, because the Middle East was an idyllic paradise for the previous millennia.

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    Mute Glen
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    Apr 9th 2015, 1:07 PM

    At the minute it’s american backed Saudis doing the bombing.

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    Mute davedunne
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    Apr 9th 2015, 1:37 PM

    The same Saudi lads that armed ISIS.

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    Mute Glen
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    Apr 9th 2015, 1:50 PM

    Davedunne
    The very same lads.

    17
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