Mexico offers to help Harvey-soaked Texas

Written by Alfredo Corchado, Border-Mexico correspondent
Aug. 28, 2017

The Mexican government expressed its solidarity Sunday with the United States following the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey and offered assistance to Texas.

Mexico offered to help Texas deal with the disaster, "as good neighbors should always do in trying times."

On Sunday evening, Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott spoke by telephone.

Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, the Mexican consul general in Austin, said he has been in constant communication with the governor's office to determine how Mexico can best help.

"As we have done in the past, Mexico stands with Texas in this difficult moment," Gonzalez said.

Mexico is prepared for a Katrina-like assistance package, officials said.

"The offer for help and collaboration acknowledges a reality," said Francisco de la Torre Galindo, Mexican consul general in Dallas. "We live in the same neighborhood called North America. We can't be distant neighbors, not any more, not ever."

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Mexico, under President Vicente Fox, sent troops and a vessel filled with food, medicine and water to aid New Orleans. For weeks, soldiers prepared food for tens of thousands of victims and distributed medical supplies and portable water. President George W. Bush met with Mexican Marines to thank them.

The latest offer from Mexico to help Texas comes after President Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday, insisting it will pay for a border wall.

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