A search team recovered the bodies of two missing people buried under a 200-tonne rock Tuesday on Cerro de Chiquihuite (Chiquihuite Hill). The populous hill on the boundary of Tlalnepantla and the Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero suffered a landslide on September 10, dislodging enormous boulders and killing four people.
Rescuers found the remains of Paola Campos Robledo, 22, and her son Dilan Armando, 5, in the same area where the body of Campos’ daughter, Mía Mayrín, 3, was recovered on September 14. The bodies were transported to the state Attorney General’s Office for their identities to be confirmed. The three victims are survived by the victims’ husband and father, Jorge Armando, 25, a construction worker who was not in the area during the landslide.
México state Governor Alfredo del Mazo previously pointed to heavy rains and the 7.1-magnitude earthquake on September 7 as probable causes of the slide, which buried at least 10 houses and left hundreds of families affected.
Tlalnepantla Mayor Raciel Pérez described the Cerro del Chiquihuite as a high risk area, and that Civil Protection officers were in the area to prevent further incidents.
Local authorities urged people to evacuate their homes in the days following the disaster due to the high probability of another landslide, but residents were slow to respond to the request. It is not clear how many people are still living on Cerro del Chiquihuite.
The federal government has declared a state of emergency in the municipality on the request of local officials. The declaration will facilitate the provision of resources to meet food, shelter and sanitary needs of those affected.
The other confirmed fatality was Mariana Martínez Rodríguez, a young student at the National Autonomous University.
With reports from Milenio and El Universal
