[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 10 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Pages 380-383]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion With Las Casitas Volcano Mudslide 
Survivors in Posoltega

March 8, 1999

[President Arnoldo Aleman of Nicaragua opened the discussion by 
presenting four survivors of Hurricane Mitch and directing them to tell 
their stories to President Clinton and to express their needs for 
assistance.]

    President Clinton.  Could I just say one word? This is Senator 
Graham, who is from the State of Florida in the United States. First of 
all, thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I know it must be hard to 
relive your story. But I think it is very important for us to be able to 
go home to the United States, having seen not only the President, who is 
my friend--I enjoy that--but also the people who have lived personally 
through this terrible tragedy.
    It is also important for the health of Nicaragua's democracy that he 
and I, when we respond to this terrible tragedy, respond in a way that 
helps you the most and that is consistent with your wishes. So I would 
like it if, in your own words, you could just tell us a little about 
what happened to you and your family and what would help most going 
forward.

[Survivor Ricardo Santeliz thanked the President for his visit and for 
the assistance from U.S. and international relief organizations. He 
described Hurricane Mitch and the resulting mudslide down Las Casitas 
Volcano as a tragedy which devastated his community and altered its 
future. Mr. Santeliz described his family's experience attempting to 
flee from harm and said that he had lost 22 relatives, and his wife had 
lost 45. President Aleman asked Mr. Santeliz about the death toll from 
Posoltega and El Porvenir, a neighboring community, and Mr. Santeliz 
said it must have been about 4,000. President Aleman asked about the 
experience of a little boy, Juan Pablo Montoya Narvaez, who was present. 
Mr. Santeliz described finding the boy beneath enormous tree branches 
and said that Juan Pablo lost his parents, but two of his brothers 
survived.]

    President Clinton. So he has two brothers now?
    Mr. Santeliz. One is 13, and one is 21.
    President Clinton. And are both of them living with him--he's living 
with both of them?
    President Aleman. Are you going to school, Juan Pablo?
    Juan Pablo. No.
    President Aleman. Why not, sweetie? You were going to school back 
in----
    Juan Pablo. No.
    President Aleman. No? Didn't you go to school back in--but there was 
a school there, wasn't there?
    Juan Pablo. Yes.
    President Aleman. Is your other brother going to school?
    Juan Pablo. Tonio.
    President Aleman. Tonio, is he the one going to school?
    Juan Pablo. No, he's not.
    President Aleman. And how many of your brothers and sisters died?
    Juan Pablo. Three.
    Mr. Santeliz. And his mother died.
    President Aleman. And you have uncles and aunts?
    Juan Pablo. No.
    President Aleman. Did your father have any brothers or sisters? What 
about your mother?
    Juan Pablo. One.
    President Aleman. And where are your uncles and aunts? Did they die?

[[Page 381]]

    Juan Pablo. Yes, the whole family.
    President Clinton. So now it's you and your two brothers?
    Juan Pablo. Yes.
    President Clinton. And you have to stay close with them.
    Juan Pablo. Yes.

[Survivor Diega Olivia Cortes Pantoja, from neighboring Rolando, 
explained that during the hurricane she was away at a clinic for an 
operation and was consequently spared. However, she lost most of her 
family and relatives in the tragedy. She described the danger and 
difficulty her surviving children experienced in searching the mud for 
family members. President Aleman asked how many survived in Rolando, and 
Ms. Pantoja estimated 2,000 to 2,500. She stated that a lot of surviving 
residents were in Costa Rica seeking work at the time because the crops 
in Rolando were finished. President Aleman asked her for Rolando's death 
toll, and she estimated there were 3,000 between Rolando and El 
Porvenir. Ms. Pantoja thanked the U.S., the Red Cross, and Save the 
Children for relief efforts and added her concern for people's need for 
shelter and opportunity to work in the wake of losing their livelihoods. 
Survivor Esperanza Mirales Acosta thanked the President and described 
being buried in the mud for 3 days. She said in spite of everything, she 
held out hope that she'd be able to find her family, but she never did. 
She said she lost 25 family members.]

    President Aleman. No one from your home was saved, my dear? No one?
    Ms. Acosta. My sisters were saved because they had gone to work in 
Costa Rica. But the people who were living there, who were still there 
from my family, I'm the only one who survived.
    President Aleman. And where were you?
    Ms. Acosta. In El Porvenir.
    President Aleman. And that's exactly where the mudslide went 
through?
    Ms. Acosta. When it came through, it was a terrible noise of 
helicopters. My husband went out, and he shouted at me, ``Sweetheart, 
run.'' And I grabbed my little girl, and I ran out. But when I ran out, 
the house had been destroyed, and I was dragged by the water. I lost my 
little girl, and I never found her again.
    President Aleman. And your husband died, too?
    Ms. Acosta. Yes. And my little girl was shouting at me, asking me to 
save her, but the water was dragging me away, and I couldn't do 
anything. I was struggling to try and stand up again, but I couldn't do 
anything. I couldn't see anything.
    President Aleman. And who rescued you?
    Ms. Acosta. I was rescued by people from the Red Cross who were 
there and some people from the area. Two people from the area were 
there, as well. They found me. I was terrified, and they were able to 
get me out. They were able to dig me out of the mud. I was there stuck 
for 3 days.
    President Clinton. So what are you going to do now with your life?
    Ms. Acosta. I still have problems with one knee. I want to get well, 
and I want to fend for myself, because now I have nothing and no one 
left. All I want to do now is work to survive and just get by.
    President Aleman. She said, ``I just want to work until my day comes 
to go.''
    Ms. Acosta. That's all I'm waiting for.
    President Aleman. And what's wrong with your leg?
    Ms. Acosta. I had a cast on this leg, and it wasn't set properly. 
And so now they have to x ray it again and see what they can do.
    President Aleman. And where are you staying now?
    Ms. Acosta. I'm over there in the shelter.
    President Clinton. You know, the President was explaining to me when 
we were coming out that the people need not only homes again but homes 
that are close enough to land which can be farmed again, because a lot 
of this land which is covered by the mud, even though it's dried out, it 
may or may not be suitable for crops now. And a lot of trees will have 
to be replanted to guard against further flooding.
    So I think we in the United States have to try to get some financial 
help to the President to do that. And then you will have to work 
together to identify the land where the people can farm again; and then 
the houses can be built.

[[Page 382]]

    You were explaining that to me, on the way out, what you have done--
find the land.

[President Aleman agreed and said his country needs to dig deeper 
channels to avoid future flooding. He inquired about a nearby ``co-op,'' 
a cooperative farm, and suggested help be given to individuals like Ms. 
Acosta and Juan Pablo and work be found for them. He then asked Ms. 
Acosta if none of her children survived.]

    Ms. Acosta. I had four.
    President Aleman. All of them little?
    Ms. Acosta. The oldest was 13. My little girl was 7--13, 12, 10, and 
7.
    President Clinton. And how old are you?
    Ms. Acosta.  I'm 29.
    President Clinton. You're still young.
    President Aleman. So you became a mother when you were 16?
    President Clinton. What about you, Juan Pablo? Do you want to say 
anything to us? Do you want to say anything to your President about this 
terrible thing?
    Juan Pablo. I lost my whole family, and I miss them--my mama and my 
papa.
    President Aleman. Where are you living, Juan Pablo? With his 
brother?
    Juan Pablo. Yes.
    Mr. Santeliz. Yes, he lives at the co-op there with his brother.
    President Aleman. How many people are in that co-op? Fifty people, 
they said? And all these new people are coming in? You said that there 
are 2,500 people in a block. Will they accept them there?

[Mr. Santeliz stated his opinion that everyone involved--governmental 
and international organizations and survivors--needs to sit down 
together and visualize solutions, discover alternatives. President 
Aleman said all the co-ops in the El Porvenir sector were destroyed, but 
a co-op in Posoltega, with 50 people farming about 2,000 acres, 
survived. He noted the trouble was convincing the 50 to accept 300 
survivors from El Porvenir and offer them 3 or 4 hectares per family to 
cultivate. Mr. Santeliz interjected that he understood the land has been 
rented to people with money.]

    President Aleman. The co-ops, themselves, are doing that?
    Mr. Santeliz. Yes.
    President Aleman. We have to sit down and talk with them so we can 
convince them.
    Mr. Santeliz. I think what we need to do there is sit down, as I was 
saying, to see what points they propose, see what they want to do.
    President Aleman. And what about Juan Pablo's brothers? Have they 
already been admitted?
    Mr. Santeliz. No, they're in the same situation.
    President Aleman. So you're like squatters?
    Mr. Santeliz. No, I'm not there. I was given a parcel, it's 12x20, 
by an organization from the U.S., as well--in Washington. An Evangelical 
church gave us a little plot of land, about 6 blocks of----
    President Clinton. World Vision, was it World Vision?
    Mr. Santeliz. It's managed by the Evangelical Conference of the 
Assembly of God in Washington.
    So since we didn't have anything, we said, ``Okay, give me a little 
plot of land where I can go.'' And that's where I am. The only thing is 
that we're all so very much reduced right now and we're under so little 
plots of land.
    President Clinton. How much land did the average family farm before 
the hurricane and the mudslide?
    Mr. Santeliz. About 5 or 6 blocks--what they call blocks, which are 
actually more like hectares.
    President Clinton. Ten acres? So the average family had 10 acres?
    President Aleman. Per family, that's what each family had.
    President Clinton. And then this block, you say, with the 50 
families, they have an average of 25 hectares?
    President Aleman. It's like, 100 acres per family--this particular 
group.
    President Clinton. So they could actually sell it out?
    President Aleman. And what they're doing is, they're renting out the 
land that they're not farming themselves.

[[Page 383]]

    President Clinton. So it's your proposal for the Government to buy 
this land on behalf of the other people, if they will accept them?
    President Aleman. That would be the ideal situation. The problem is 
that the co-op with those 50 people--and it's very, very good land; they 
know that land, very fertile land. This co-op got it back in the 
Sandinista days. So I don't think they're going to want to give it up. 
They're not going to give it to anyone or sell it.
    They prefer it, as he was saying, to rent it, to lease it, because 
it's better business for them. We'll see what measures can be taken. And 
the discussions we're trying to hold--we'll see how we can change this. 
Because the other problem we have, Mr. President, is there's land, but 
not in this area, not on the Pacific side.
    President Clinton. Too far away?
    President Aleman. This has been traditionally farm land. But we'll 
see what solution we find. Faith in God.
    Juan Pablo, you have to go and study now. Do you promise you're 
going to study?
    Juan Pablo. Yes.
    President Aleman. Are you going to study? You promise?
    Juan Pablo. Yes.
    President Clinton. You can learn a lot and pray to God to take care 
of your mother and father. And they will know and be very proud of you.

Note: The roundtable began at 3:45 p.m. in the auditorium at the Cotton 
Research Center. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.