International
The collapse of a bridge in Baltimore due to the crash of a freighter causes six missing persons
The collision this Tuesday of a container ship against Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge caused the total collapse of that structure that crosses the Patapsco River and so far leaves six missing, in whose search federal, state and local agents are involved.
The event took place around 1:30 local time (5:30 GMT). The freighter Dali lost propulsion, according to the first indications, and ended up being embedded against the bridge, built in 1977, through which about 35,000 vehicles a day cross and which rose to fame in the past as the setting for the series ‘The Wire’.
The alert given by the ship itself allowed the entry of vehicles into the area to be stopped and lives were saved, but there were workers on the spot who were repairing the asphalt: two were injured, one of them serious, and six others are still missing.
At first there was talk of 20 people with unknown whereabouts, but that figure was lowered shortly after. In their search, a helicopter, three boats of the coast guard and teams of divers participate.
The Secretary of Transport of Maryland, Paul Wiedefeld, indicated that the low temperature of the water, its depth, of about 15 meters, and the darkness when the event occurred make the work difficult.
The priority is to find the missing, the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, told the press in one of the many appearances organized throughout the day to offer the latest details about what happened.
It is already known that there are no signs of a terrorist attack. The FBI is involved in the investigation, as every time there are events of this scope, and its special agent Bill Delbagno specified that there is no “specific or credible information that suggests that there are links to terrorism.”
Everything indicates that it was an accident. The Singaporean company Synergy Group, which operates the ship, announced that none of its 22 crew members were injured, while the Danish multinational Maersk confirmed that it had temporarily rented the ship, named Dali, and that it was transporting cargo from the company.
The Dali has a gross load capacity of 95,000 tons and 300 meters in length. In 2016, it hit the pier in the port of Antwerp (Belgium), according to Vessel Finder.
The port was paralyzed and only the loading and unloading activity of the trucks is allowed. The area is also blocked to traffic and the press, which can only be accessed about 1.6 kilometers away, from where you can see the ship blocked with its containers and the bridge turned into a tangle of steel.
The local authorities do not yet want to talk about the economic cost of the impact. “A bridge can be rebuilt, our focus is on the people,” said the mayor, while the governor of Maryland specified that not only will it be built again, but it will be made in memory of those affected.
The bridge that collapsed is the largest in the state of Maryland. It is 2,632 meters long and owes its name in honor of the poet Francis Scott Key, author of the lyrics of the American anthem.
Its construction began in 1972, its structure crosses the lower part of the Patapsco River between Hawkins Point and Sollers Point and runs through it the I-695 highway, whose traffic was diverted this Tuesday until further notice.
The governor of Maryland, who declared a state of emergency in the area, stressed today that the entire state is in “shock.”
Baltimore is its most populous city, with just over 600,000 inhabitants in the urban center and 2.7 million in its metropolitan area, and its port, located in Chesapeake Bay, is the most important in the United States for the trade in vehicles and agricultural equipment.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, ordered the reconstruction of the collapsed bridge and the reopening of the port, now blocked, as soon as possible.
“I have ordered my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,” Biden said in an address.
The president also announced that the federal government will advance the funds to pay for the reconstruction of the bridge.
“We will send all the federal resources you need while we respond to this emergency. And I mean all federal resources. And we are going to rebuild this port together,” said the US president.
“My intention,” he added, “is for the federal government to pay the total cost of the reconstruction of that bridge. And I hope that Congress will support my effort.”
Biden later clarified that the idea is for the Government to advance the money until the responsibility of the container carrier is determined.
An inspection last June in the Chilean port of San Antonio found problems in the “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” of the Dali cargo engine, with the Singaporean flag and that on Tuesday caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the port of Baltimore, according to the Equasis database consulted by EFE.
The inspection, dated June 27, 2021, found deficiencies in propulsion and more specifically in “measuring devices, thermometers, etc.”
Those problems caused two subsequent inspections, but the freighter, with 300 meters in length and capacity to carry 95,000 tons, was not stopped and was able to continue operating, after solving the deficiencies.
The Dali, which began operating in 2015, had another problem in its history, when in July 2016 it collided with a mooring in the port of Antwerp (Belgium) and suffered damage to the hull.
International
A magnitude 6 earthquake shakes the province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, bordering Colombia
A magnitude 6 earthquake was recorded this Friday in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, bordering Colombia, causing damage to several infrastructures and leaving, so far, 20 people injured.
According to the Geophysical Institute of the National Polytechnic School, the earthquake occurred at 06:44 local time (11:44 GMT) at 1.03 degrees south latitude and 79.69 degrees west longitude.
According to the source, the tremor occurred at a depth of 30 kilometers and 9.31 kilometers from Esmeraldas, capital of the homonymous province.
According to the National Secretariat of Risk Management (SNGR), the affected people had head injuries and bruises.
While the SNGR continues with the verification of affectations, it indicated that 80% of the electricity service and 80% of the telecommunications that were affected, are gradually restored.
Among the affected public buildings are the ECU 911 due to a fall of masonry; the Vargas Torres University, which has cracks; the Los Militares building where the front collapsed and the Prefecture building, among others.
The SNGR reported that the earthquake was felt with strong intensity in seven municipalities of the province of Esmeraldas and moderately in the provinces of Guayas and Manabí, while mildly in Carchi, Cotopaxi, Imbabura, Los Ríos, Pichincha, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Tungurahua.
About twenty minutes after the earthquake in Esmeraldas, one of magnitude 4.1 was reported in the coastal province of Guayas, located in the southeast of the country, without damage or victims having been reported so far.
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, ordered the displacement of all his ministers to Esmeraldas, in order to coordinate actions after the magnitude 6 earthquake recorded this Friday.
“I have arranged for the immediate deployment of all ministers in the province of Esmeraldas to coordinate the installation of shelters, delivery of humanitarian aid kits and assistance in everything our people need,” Noboa wrote on his social network account X.
The province of Esmeraldas was one of the most affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake recorded on April 16, 2016, which left more than 670 dead, thousands affected, as well as millions of material losses.
This earthquake also hit the province of Manabí, located, like Esmeraldas, on the coast of the Andean country, but also affected other areas and was felt strongly, even in the Ecuadorian capital.
Ecuador is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire or Belt, which concentrates some of the most important subduction areas (sinking of tectonic plates) in the world and is the scene of strong seismic activity.
In addition to Ecuador, the Horseshoe-shaped Belt comprises a large number of countries such as Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States and Canada.
International
Preparations for Pope Francis’ funeral, in figures
The funeral of Pope Francis this Saturday, the first of a reigning pontiff for two decades, is an event that moves dizzying figures and will require the full mobilization of Italian authorities and volunteers.
These are some of the figures that draw what can be expected tomorrow for a historic day:
The Italian Ministry of the Interior has calculated that 200,000 faithful will attend the funeral of Francis. For the next conclave – with a date yet to be defined – and the election of the new pope, that figure amounts to 250,000.
The funeral procession that will move the remains of the late pope from St. Peter’s Vatican to the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor, where Francis arranged to be buried in a simple tomb.
3,000 volunteers will mobilize the Italian Civil Protection, responsible for the management of the preparations. There will be 55 health teams distributed throughout the funeral procession between San Pedro del Vaticano and the basilica de Santa María la Mayor, in addition to 11 advanced medical posts and 52 additional ambulances that will join the existing fleet.
17 degrees and a radiant sun are expected at 10:00 (08.00 GMT) on Saturday, the start time of the funeral, although the thermometer could reach 24 degrees throughout the day.
The state group Ferrovie dello Stato makes 260,000 seats available to those who wish to approach Rome by train. Civil Protection also confirmed that 500 parking spaces for buses and coaches have been reserved for the same day in Rome and its surroundings.
130 international delegations have already confirmed their presence at the event, but it is expected that the final figure may rise to 170. Fifty will be headed by heads of state or government, including a dozen sovereigns.
120,000 arrivals planned in Rome on April 25 and 26, which will translate into about 320,000 overnight stays, according to figures from the Department of Tourism of the Italian capital, which warns that the estimates may be below even those that finally occur. 101,000 of those arrivals will take place in hotels and another 53,000 in “supplementary establishments”.
11,000 soldiers and members of the security forces, not counting the teams of the international delegations, who will ensure that the funeral is held without incident. Police, police officers and traffic officers will join at least 1,500 soldiers.
5 anti-drone bazooas, capable of intercepting the radio frequencies with which these devices are operated, which will reinforce the decreed no-fly zone over the Roman sky.
International
“A dignified life” for migrants, the plea in Panama in memory of Pope Francis
Catholics who work with some of the 299 migrants deported by the United States to Panama, beg the Government that beyond placing the flag at half-mast for the death of Pope Francis this week, it should pay tribute to him by giving “a dignified life” to the migrants, as the Supreme Pontiff preached.
“Never forget your human dignity,” because “you are not a discard,” the pope wrote last year in a message addressed to the thousands of migrants who had just crossed the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border between Colombia and Panama, on their way to the United States.
Known by many as “the pope of migrants” for his defense of those who are forced to leave their land in search of better living conditions, he himself recalled then that he was “son of migrants who went out in search of a better future,” and that “there were times when they were left with nothing, until they went hungry; with empty hands, but their hearts full of hope.”
Therefore, members of Catholic organizations that are part of the CLAMOR Network (the Latin American and Caribbean Ecclesiastical Network for Migration, Displacement, Refuge and Trafficking in Persons), and who work with dozens of migrants in the Panamanian capital deported by the United States, remember the teachings of Pope Francis.
Elías Cornejo, coordinator of social promotion and attention to the migrant population of the Catholic organization Fe y Alegría, which is part of the Clamor Network, explained to EFE in a migrant shelter that we must “look for alternatives for these people, they cannot be kept in conditions that are not favorable or dignified.”
“In the context of the death of Pope Francis, who was incisive in insisting on humane treatment of migrants, I believe that this country that declares itself mostly Catholic (…) beyond the flag at half-mast, I would also ask the national government to dignify that memory of Pope Francis by giving an answer to many people who (…) have the right to have a dignified life,” Cornejo stressed.
“Give them that, try to find a human, Christian, evangelical answer,” he insisted.
The pilgrimage of this group of migrants through Panama began in mid-February, when a total of 299 arrived on three planes from the United States within the framework of an agreement that turned the Central American nation into a “joup” country for their repatriation.
Coming from extracontinental nations such as China, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Pakistan or Nepal, 188 returned to their countries “voluntarily”, according to the latest official information available, and 111 refused to do so, many of them fearing for their lives.
The entire group was first housed in a central hotel in the Panamanian capital, and those who refused to be repatriated to their countries were transferred to a shelter more than 200 kilometers away, near the Darién jungle.
Then, after the decision last March by the Government of Panama to grant them a temporary humanitarian permit for 30 days, extendable up to 90, to find a way out of their situation, they took them back to the capital, although now without any type of logistical support, so the CLAMOR Network occupied that vacuum by first hosting the migrants in a humble hotel in the city, to transfer them days later to one of its shelters.
According to Cornejo, who underlines the support they receive in the shelter of “non-believing people, believing people, Muslim people, people of other religions too,” of the 69 migrants who moved there – families with children continue to stay in a hotel – 47 remain, since they “make their own decisions and move” by their own decision to other places.
“We don’t know where, we have an idea, but we don’t want to keep them or force them to anything, because they are free, they are not people who are imprisoned (…) We don’t want to pressure them, we don’t want to pressure the Government, but we do want to tell them again, ‘please, let’s find a way out of this’. An exit that has to be worthy for the State and for them, for migrants,” he remarked.
At least, he says, from the Foreign Ministry they have guaranteed that they will not deport anyone by force if the new 60-day period ends, an extension that ends in June and that, according to official data shared with EFE, at least 80 migrants have requested.
Two mothers from Asian countries who requested with their children the extension of the “temporary resident permit for humanitarian reasons”, as indicated in the document to which EFE had access, and who asked for anonymity, insisted that returning to their country is not an option, since if they return their “lives are in danger”.
Housed in a humble hotel in the center of the Panamanian capital, on a floor where behind each door there is a family of different nationality, they explain to EFE through a translation application part of their journey to the United States, crossing several countries of America with their minor children, and then their sudden expulsion without knowing the destination, some handcuffed hand and foot.
“When they put me on the plane I felt suffocated. His hands and feet were cold. My heart was beating fast, I had high blood pressure. I told the military,” recalls one of them. There were men and women handcuffed, the children were terrified. They are adults, but children are not, “how can they treat them as criminals?”
Now, they say, they are “afraid” that the day will come when the deadline they were given to stay in Panama will expire. “When this document ends, I don’t know exactly what will happen to us if the United States doesn’t get us out of here.”
“We want to ask Donald Trump to return us to the United States, please,” they begged.
A magnitude 6 earthquake shakes the province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador, bordering Colombia
Preparations for Pope Francis’ funeral, in figures
“A dignified life” for migrants, the plea in Panama in memory of Pope Francis
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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