Mexican president slams critics in wake of deadly hurricane: ‘They’re circling like vultures’

Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has lashed out at his critics in the wake of Hurricane Otis, which slammed into Mexico’s Pacific coast last week as a Category 5 storm.

Obrador attacked those who he said were exaggerating the extent of the damage caused by the hurricane and indicated that they were providing misleading information. Last week’s storm killed more than 36 people so far, destroyed homes and other buildings and flooded the cities of Acapulco and Guerrero.

He said in a speech: “They are circling like vultures, they do not care about people’s pain, and they want to harm us, because there have been so many deaths.” Video message It was posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.

Otis surprised Mexico and forecasters after it developed into a Category 5 storm Tuesday night into Wednesday of last week with winds of 165 mph. It was initially expected to make landfall as a tropical storm, but instead became the strongest landfall of any hurricane in the eastern Pacific, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Obrador later noted that some critics had provided misleading information about the death toll in his 24-minute video message, saying Security Minister Rosa Aisela Rodríguez had provided an updated death toll “without lying.”

Rodriguez said that 39 people had been confirmed dead as of Saturday, noting that the likely cause of death was “suffocation due to submersion.” The death toll is likely to continue to rise over the next two days, as first responders continue to search the waters for potential victims and survivors.

Since the storm caught many by surprise, many people took boats into what was expected to be a tropical storm. The government reported on Saturday that at least 10 people were considered missing.