I don’t think I succeeded and he had to go to the Foreign Secretary, and finally to President de la Madrid. Stanley Zuckerman was a Counselor for Public Affairs for Mexico City from 1978 to 1983; he was interviewed by Kennedy beginning July 2004. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Responses from the Mexican community and foreign governments came swiftly. As well, the tremors led to gas mains to break causing fires and explosions throughout Mexico City. We landed in Mexico and went through this program which involved going to Los Pinos, giving the check, having a little talk with de la Madrid, and going around touring a number of sites. They would sometimes report his criticisms, but you would sort of lose the train of it before you got done. Mexico City earthquake of 1985, also called Michoacán earthquake of 1985, severe earthquake that occurred on September 19, 1985, off the coast of the Mexican state of Michoacán, causing widespread death and injuries and catastrophic damage in Mexico’s capital, Mexico City. Ambassador Gavin was on his way to Europe on vacation and Deputy Chief of Mission [DCM] Morris Busby was in Northern Mexico on fisheries negotiations. Many worked most of the first 72 hours straight, either in the Embassy or outside. T he earthquake that struck Mexico City on Tuesday hit on the same exact calendar date on which the capital was hit by a violent earthquake in 1985. As Mexico City is situated on an ancient lakebed plateau … Mexico City earthquake of 1985. Maybe that was because I had been through many earthquakes before, including one just as serious. Soup kitchens were set up by the people to keep the diggers working. You could see the appreciation of the families of these children as they went to the airport to welcome their children back…. It made it extremely difficult to read these stories or they would turn the story around. Mexico City Earthquake, 1985. Canadian Operation Name: (Mexico 1985) Canadian Operation Dates: 1985/09/19 – 1985/09/26. By the second day I think it could take airplanes because the runways were indeed not damaged. On September 19, 1985, at 7:17 A.M., a Richter magnitude 8.1 earthquake occurred on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Then we went to the embassy and she gave a speech. At any rate, he counted the number of buildings down and he made two observations to the press as he got off the helicopter. We coordinated with the embassy. We weren’t even sure they would be able to be sent the first couple of days. The first thing, the highest priority, was to determine that all of the Embassy people were safe, that all official American personnel were safe. The result: The earthquake was amplified in strength. I remember we let every American, tourist or resident, come to the Embassy and write a one-page telegram. So they wouldn’t just report the facts and then put their editorial opinion on the editorial page, saying he shouldn’t have spoken this way or he didn’t have the facts corrected, it would all be interwoven in the same story. He got the military to get him a helicopter, and he wanted to personally survey the damage in Mexico City, not without reason, again. As far as we knew, no staff person’s home or structure collapsed and no staff person was hurt badly. We also have to remember that there was a major aftershock thirty six hours later, about 7 o’clock at night the next day. He and Connie Gavin did a tremendous amount of fund-raising and charity work then and later in helping the victims…. Major quake of 7 4 magnitude hits mexico so susceptible to earthquakes 1985 mexico city earthquake 2017 central mexico earthquake mexico earthquake kills hundreds Mexico Earthquake Strongest In A Century Kills Dozens The New York TimesHere S What We Know About Mexico Earthquake Abc News Australian Broadcasting CorporationMexico S Strongest Earthquake … We had to give the Mayor of Mexico City a video presentation of how the implosions were done in the U.S. These two guys heard screams and dove in to the flooded basement waters of the severely damaged hotel trying to save drowning hotel guests. Of course, both of those facts, and they probably were facts, that he announced, were things that the Mexican government didn’t want to hear. I was in the Embassy in my office at 7:30 in the morning. I remember doing up the format. The president was saying that they had lost 10,000 people, and Gavin made a public statement that there were 20,000 or more who had died. The foreign media would always cover these things, and then report it, and then sometimes the Mexican media would be able to report on what the foreign media had presented. I stayed in the Embassy the day and night of the first quake until about 4:00 a.m. Quakes, most of them minor, and none as strong as the one in 1985, remained a constant feature of life in Mexico City. There was no time for an advance visit or anything. Within the next couple hours, we made sure the local Mexican staff was ok. On September 19, 1985, at 7:18 in the morning, the residents of Mexico City were jolted awake by an 8.1-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest to ever hit the area. It is the country’s economic and cultural hub, as well as home to the offices of the federal government. ©Copyright 1998-2021 Association for Diplomatic Studies & Training Most of Alaska’s mainland felt the magnitude 9.2 earthquake, which wobbled Seattle’s Space Needle some 1,200 miles ...read more, Mexico City, Mexico’s largest city and the most populous metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, is also known as Distrito Federal, or the federal district. I didn’t think that was very strange. The 1985 Mexico City Earthquake was an earthquake that happened in Mexico City on September 19, 1985. They needed that much space to lay out the corpses. But early that morning, some lines were still open. Your browser (Internet Explorer 7 or lower) is out of date. I had the great honor to cut the ribbon at one project where I went with Henry Cisneros and Bob Krueger because San Antonio, where Cisneros was the Mayor, donated the money to rebuild a school. Most of them came in to the Embassy to work. PASTORINO: Between the governments it probably didn’t. A lot of people were saved that night by the digging, survivors being dug out minute by minute. I remember Dan Rather telling the world that Mexico City was completely destroyed. The momentum carried me; there were things that had to be done. The airport runways were thought to be damaged on the first day. Within a few more hours I learned that this was probably going to happen so we turned to and set up the visit. I told the Mexican employees they could return home, if they thought it was necessary. I am sure the implosions, which were successful, saved many lives. I went onto the roof and I could see buildings collapsed within two or three blocks. So a lot of what we did in USIS, we would also sponsor seminars for journalists and so on. So you’d look on a block and three buildings would be standing, and two buildings, like collapsed teeth, would be down between the three standing buildings. He was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy starting in March 1998. Nonetheless, I mean, it came across to the Mexican people that he was someone who was not their friend. They had left me in charge of the Mission but Washington didn’t know that. Q: Well, then, if Gavin would make these statements, like obviously there was a problem of corruption which led to deaths, could the media mention that? Ambassador to Mexico, John Gavin, observing the resulting damage of the earthquake. So I was in the Embassy the next night at 6 or 7 o’clock when the major aftershock came. I didn’t notice any great panic and couldn’t see any damaged buildings on that block. He had a tendency shared by almost all politically appointed ambassadors, including [Patrick] Lucey at times, to sometimes speak out on Mexican affairs as if they were presidents of Mexico rather than ambassadors to the country. The water system was destroyed in much of the city. More than 400 buildings collapsed and thousands more were damaged. Heavy machinery, medical supplies, and excavation equipment descended into the city to help with rescue efforts. …The only untoward thing was the earthquake. It was all got up in a few days as you might imagine right after the earthquake. HUGHES:  During the brief period that I was on the NSC staff in connection with Mexico, my main activities were planning a trip that Nancy Reagan made to Mexico and accompanying her to give a symbolic donation of a million dollars to the victims of the September 1985 Mexico City earthquake and dealing with a presidential phone call between de la Madrid and Ronald Reagan. 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