Despite having more than enough to deal with domestically, the Mexican government is sending an aid package to the island of Puerto Rico, laid waste to byHurricane Maria last month.
The hurricane has caused at least 34 deaths and left vast swaths of the island without power and water and infrastructure in tatters.
Soon to arrive from Mexico on the small U.S. territory are 30 tons of bottled water, plus a quantity of mosquito repellant. In addition, a team of specialists from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) will offer their services in the area of energy generation, transmission and distribution, something a large portion of the island is in dire need of.
Also at issue is the population of Mexican citizens who remain in Puerto Rico. The Mexican consulate is working night and day to aid its citizens, including sending home those who wish to leave the island. To facilitate the consulate’s operations, the Mexican government is also sending aid directly to consular workers.
The promise of aid to Puerto Rico has been accompanied by an expression of condolences on the part of the Peña Nieto administration for the losses suffered by the Puerto Rican people during and after the storm.
For journalists and lay-observers alike, unfavorably juxtaposing an expression of solidarity and altruism by a government already besieged by fallout from its own natural disasters with images of U.S. head-of-state Trump flinging rolls of toilet paper at a crush of desperate Puerto Ricans will prove irresistible.