Austin American-Statesman

Mexico, struck by its own disasters, can’t help Texas

- Elisabeth Malkin ©2017 The New York Times

Sorry, we have too many troubles of our own.

That was the gist of a message that Mexico’s foreign relations ministry sent Monday in announcing that it had no choice but to withdraw the help it had offered to Texas to deal with the flooding left by Hurricane Harvey.

After Mexico’s strongest earthquake in living memory struck Thursday night, killing 96 people and devastatin­g parts of Oaxaca and Chiapas states, and Hurricane Katia swept ashore early Saturday, causing mudslides and flooding, the foreign ministry said all help was needed at home.

The ministry also noted that shelters in Houston were beginning to close and said that after talking with Texas officials, it was clear that the state’s need for help had diminished.

But it has also been widely noted in Mexico that President Donald Trump did not send condolence­s after the earthquake.

The announceme­nt by Mexico that it was withdrawin­g its offer to help Texas must have caught someone’s attention in Washington. On Monday night, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson picked up the phone — four days after the earthquake — to offer condolence­s and assistance to Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray.

(Hours after the quake, the U.S. ambassador in Mexico City, Roberta Jacobson, had sent prayers to affected families on Twitter, and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas did likewise.)

Mexico, which sent brigades to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, first offered to send help to Texas on Aug. 27, when Videgaray spoke to Abbott by telephone, the foreign ministry said. The ministry followed up the next day with a list of what it could offer, including food, soldiers, medicine and water. On Sept. 6, Texas officials said they would accept logistical help.

In its note Monday, the Mexican foreign ministry thanked Abbott for his words of solidarity after the earthquake and offered its support for Florida, which is reeling from the effects of Hurricane Irma.

Mexico “deeply hopes that very soon, the state of Florida, as well as the states of Texas and Louisiana, manage to recover from the damage caused by the hurricanes that have struck them,” the ministry said.

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