Guatemala forced to suffer in silence

A region hit by a volcanic explosion, hurricane and catastrophic landslides within a few days would, as Toby Porter, Save the Children emergencies’ director, wrote, normally dominate the week’s news.

But this was not most weeks. El Salvador’s highest volcano, Llamatepec, exploded on October 1. Three days later, the deadly winds of Hurricane Stan smashed into the east coast of Guatemala and Mexico bringing with them near biblical quantities of rain which triggered landslides. The official death toll is around 700 but aid workers fear many thousands were killed in remote areas that relief efforts have yet to reach.