President Maduro Visits Cumanacoa, Announces More Equipment and Personnel for Rebuilding After Hurricane Beryl

President Nicolás Maduro instructed for the deployment of more machinery and personnel to rebuild Cumanacoa during his visit to the areas affected by the passing of Hurricane Beryl and the overflow of the Manzanares River last week.

At the Montes de Cumanacoa municipality in Sucre state, President Maduro said that each and every one of the affected homes in the region will be rebuilt. “This will be a special model of house-to-house reconstruction,” he said while surrounded by the people of Cumanacoa and facing the desperation of some locals who disapproved of the inaction on the part of some ministers.

The president also highlighted that a presidential command post has been set up to coordinate actions related to supporting families in the neighboring Montes municipality. He questioned Minister of Waters Rodolfo Marcos Torres for not solving the lack of water service in the surrounding areas of Cumanacoa. He added that solving the water issue in the city is not enough and asked the minister to fully resolve the problem as soon as possible.

Under a torrential downpour, President Maduro announced that the plan to rebuild Cumanacoa will be named the Hugo Chávez Cumanacoa Reborn Project. He also reported that he had assigned General Nayade Solovenly Lockiby as the sole authority of Cumanacoa under the emergency response contingency.

Yoneyda y Luis José, se los ratifico, vamos a recuperarlo todo, se los garantizo. ¡Cuenten con todo mi apoyo! #cumanacoa pic.twitter.com/CmDa2GzWHK
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) July 9, 2024

“This must be a special recovery model and that is why I created the Presidential Command Post, here are the minister of Housing, the minister of Infrastructure, and the Civil Defense personnel who have saved lives from the first moment,” he said.

The president commented on the need to work extensively to prevent structural damage, with works such as those carried out in La Guaira, “because this phenomenon [storms] gets repeated due to climate change.”

Maduro visited some of the affected houses where people approached him to tell him that they lost not only their belongings such as mattresses and appliances but also their documents such as identity cards or driver’s licenses, so the president ordered General Lockiby to make a schedule for reissuing such documents. He also asked the minister of Health to make arrangements for the replacement of glasses for the inhabitants, since many people told him that they lost them due to the storm.

“Some brazen right-wing person came out and claimed that the rains that fell were [my] fault,” President Maduro said. “These people are hateful and are professional deceivers. We are going to recover everything completely. The most important thing is that life was preserved, that people are alive, and material things are being recovered. I came here to see everything with my own eyes and to speed up the plans. Rest assured that just as we saw Továr reborn, which was left under the rocks, and as we saw Tejerías reborn, Cumanacoa will be reborn sooner rather than later.”

President Maduro speaks with inhabitants of Montes municipality
In one of the houses that President Maduro entered, he drank coffee and received blessings after a Christian prayer performed by a lady, who placed her hand on the head of the president and in her prayer asked God for his protection.

With a megaphone in hand, the Venezuelan president addressed the population, “The first thing was to save everything that could be saved, to conduct the census, to know the needs, to get water, electricity, food, and to get the equipment. Now we are going to clean everything, to recover, to rebuild. House by house we must recover and rebuild. God gives us difficult tests in life, but we are made for these tests and more.”

“Cumanacoa will be reborn,” Maduro declared during his visit to the Montes municipality, where the population welcomed him en masse. “Tejerías was totally destroyed, the destruction was horrendous, and I said Tejerías will be reborn and it was reborn. Here the damage is more widespread in the territory, but I also tell you that Cumanacoa will be reborn and we will overcome this situation. There are many things to do in this first stage, that of cleaning and recovering the spaces, but we will achieve it,” he said.

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No to bureaucracy, direct financing instead
The president also emphasized the need to avoid bureaucratic processes for the delivery of financial aid in Cumanacoa and recalled the success of the special fund created for the recovery of Las Tejerías that had been gravely affected by a landslide in 2022.

“We cannot be demanding papers here and there, it must be fast, direct financing,” the president stressed. “The merchants of the municipal market, the entrepreneurs, the bakers, the grocers, they all must know that they will have double aid, one for the recovery of their belongings such as mattresses, refrigerators, freezers, stoves, shelves, which is on the way, as well as the financing, cash, so that they can invest, with the absolute ease of giving it now and in the best conditions, which you know only a socialist government can give.”

Earlier, Planning Minister Ricardo Menéndez reported that the first phase of the aerial survey with drones in Cumanacoa was completed, with the purpose of contributing to the identification of risk variables, given the effects caused by the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

He said, “With these inputs, we will have a risk map as well as details for hydraulic works, housing and infrastructure as part of the comprehensive deployment of the revolutionary government, in all aspects of attention for Cumanacoa.”

On July 8 of this year, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced that the inhabitants of Cumanacoa who were victims of the aftermath of the storm will receive a Special Emergency Bonus via the online Patria System, like the bonus given to those affected by the Las Tejerías landslide in 2022.

(Últimas Noticias) by Odry Farnetano, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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