Mexican workers to aid response time
By Angelica Martinez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 17, 2008
SAN DIEGO – Mexican Red Cross members began training for disaster response in San Diego yesterday to become part of a pioneering cross-border team.
A group of eight bilingual Mexican Red Cross staff members from Baja California met in Kearny Mesa for classroom-style sessions about the functions of the American Red Cross. The training is scheduled to continue through tomorrow.
The idea for cross-border teams came from lessons learned during the wildfires in October, said Araceli Gaines, a response associate for the American Red Cross in Imperial Valley.
At the time, Mexican firefighters who had already been training with firefighters here helped battle the flames near the border.
The Red Cross hopes the same collaboration can improve and quicken its disaster response along both sides of the border, Gaines said.
The challenge exists in the way each country has set up its Red Cross operations.
In Mexico, Red Cross workers function like paramedics 80 percent of the time, said Rigoberto Lozoya Canales, an executive coordinator for the Mexican Red Cross.
Workers there provide medical aid, transportation to hospitals and other emergency assistance. They are the first responders almost all the time, he said.
Those daily demands have kept them from obtaining the sort of experience that their counterparts north of the border have.
In the United States, Red Cross workers deal with “mass care” situations in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the wildfires. Workers provide shelter, food and supplies.
“We're secondary responders,” said Cruz Ponce, a partner services manager with the American Red Cross, San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter. “We have to be invited to an incident to be there.”
Those participating in this week's training will not provide medical aid if they are called to a disaster in the United States. They will function as the American Red Cross workers normally do, Gaines said.
American Red Cross workers who go to Mexico in the event of a disaster will also only provide mass care, and they will not serve as first responders, Gaines said. Three American Red Cross workers who are bilingual are scheduled to undergo three days of training in Mexico in the summer. The training is scheduled to be completed by the fall.
The cross-training will be useful in cutting down the time spent searching for volunteers who can cross the border and provide disaster relief.
“If it took five days to get them here (in the past), we can potentially get them here in 24 hours after this training,” Gaines said.
American Red Cross officials in Washington, D.C. are working with their counterparts in Mexico City to establish the paperwork for the program.
In the meantime, Lozoya said, the lessons provided this week will be taken back to Mexico to help members learn how to establish a mass care response with support from churches and other organizations, as is typically done in the United States.
“Disaster doesn't wait,” Lozoya said. “We need to be trained and ready to help when it happens.”
Angelica Martinez: (619) 293-1317; angelica.martinez@uniontrib.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 11, 2008
More than 300 Rosarito Residents Volunteer For
New Tourist-Assistance Citizens’ Watch Program
ROSARITO BEACH, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO---More than 300 residents here have volunteered to provide citizens’ watch services for the more than one million people a year who visit this popular tourist city.
Members of the newly formed Citizen Council for Assistance to Tourists were sworn in at a March 4 ceremony at the Rosarito Beach Hotel. They included both Mexican-born and expatriate residents of the city, tourism officials and business people.
The city of 140,000 which is 30 miles south of San Diego includes about 14,000 expatriate residents.
The group was formed by the new city administration of Mayor Hugo Torres. Members will watch for and report any problems that might affect visitors in Rosarito’s tourist areas. The new mayor has made security for both residents and visitors the top priority of his administration.
About 325 people have joined the group so far. Torres said at the ceremony that the huge response is indicative of the how highly people in the city value visitors. “This shows how much people care,” Torres said.
Identification cards also were issued to members of the group. Anyone wanting to join should contact Marco Nuno at marco@rosarito.org. He works from the city’s Tourist Assistance Office.
Formation of the group comes in the same month that Rosarito will start a special tourist police force to patrol areas frequented by city visitors. The force is both to provide additional security and prevent any police extortion of visitors.
“As the Mexican government cracks down on drug cartels, there have been a few highly publicized incidents of violence between authorities and organized crime in Baja,” Torres “Some people in U.S. have asked if it safe to visit.”
“In reality, we have had very few crimes targeting our visitors, but we believe that any is too many,” Torres said. “There also is the perception of crime being greater than the reality, and we must deal with that as well. Our visitors must feel comfortable.”
“Federal, state and local police patrols have been increased throughout northern Baja. We want people to know that we are doing everything possible to make our visitors feel secure and comfortable when they come here.”
Rosarito also has created a 24-hour-a-day ombudsman office to assist any visitor involved in an accident or crime. Ricardo Moreno, an attorney, heads that office. He can be reached at 661-612- 5071 (office), 664-261-5984, 152*159230*1 (Nextel) or ccspm_rosarito@yahoo.com.mx.
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