One month ago we lost our good friend Eduardo Mayen Rivera. Here he is giving some simple advice to children and adults that get their kites stuck in power lines and attempt to take them down.
Crédito: EsmiTV TCS
Category Archives: History
Historic Narratives of CDS.
A Letter to Mayen, “To my Father”
The following is a letter from the daughter of Mayen that lives in Miami. She contacted us via our Facebook page.
Eduardo Rivera Mayen or “papi” as I used to know him, was a man of honor. I will never forget his gentle voice and comforting words he always said. As a little girl he would always bring me my favorite flavor cake for my birthday. He would take me to los caballitos where one of my favorite pictures were taken. Despite our distance I know he loved me, I hope he know I loved him too. On our last conversation he told me to ” construye tu destino, no dejes que el destino haga tu vida.”
Life wasn’t easy living far from him. I usually saw him when I visited El Salvador every couple of years. Now I have a daughter named after my mother as well as me that will live for him. He was loved by many, it was clearly seen at the burial. There are no words to express my feelings of not being there. The fact that he died alone with no help, is heart breaking. I am eternally grateful for what Comandos has done for him. I try to understand that due to the conditions the burial couldn’t be held back any longer.
It’s hard to swallow the pain to know he will never know his granddaughter and she well never know her abuelito. I will make sure that she learns what a wonderful man he was, how he helped so many people in need and what he meant to El Salvador and Comandos. I try to see it as a “see you real soon” for how he is with my mother in heaven and they are waiting for me to finally be together. May you rest in peace dad, I’ll never let you die, that is my promise to you.
Love,
Muriel Elizabeth Rivera
Last Goodbye to Eduardo Rivera Mayen: Journalist Spokesman for CDS
Dozens of EMS volunteers from Comandos de Salvamento were accompanied by members of the Red and Green Cross, the National Fire Dept, family members, friends, delegates from political parties and representatives from Civil Protection to say their last goodbyes to friend and colleague Eduardo Rivera Mayén. Commonly called, “Mayen” by close friends was the main CDS spokesman for the Salvadoran press. During mass disasters, civil war firefights, street protests, mass casualty incidents, or violent crime, Mayen was always there, calm and professional under extreme circumstances to offer concrete information to Salvadoran journalists and comforting words to families of those affected. Mayen was transported through the streets of San Salvador followed by more than twenty ambulances from different EMS organizations. The burial ceremony took place at the CampoAmor cemetery. Near the end of the ceremony, his family was given the infamous journalist vest that Mayen used for many years while conveying news to the press.
Fotos: Francisco Campos
Fotos: Ricardo Segura
Eduardo Rivera Mayen R.I.P.
[podcast]https://comandosdesalvamento.org/1/moozic/MAYEN/AMIGOMAYEN.mp3[/podcast]
A great friend and Comando at heart, Eduardo Mayen was found dead in his apartment today by a small brigade of Comandos that were sent out to check on him. He had not been seen since Friday afternoon. Eduardo was public relations speaker for the institution and he will be mightily missed by friends and family. Eduardo is currently at Medicina Legal in San Salvador and will soon be sent to the main base for a Velorio and Tribute memorial service this Wednesday the 14th at Campoamor. More information aquí. “Mayen”, as he was commonly called by friends, had a heart of Gold and gave alot of his time and energy to our institution. Un Abrazo Mayen.
Eduardo Rivera Mayen, mano derecha lleva la bandera de Comandos durante una emergencia del pasado.
Las Colinas: The First Ground Zero of 2001
By Mark Hoffman: CDS International Rep
Ten years ago on January 13th 2001, an earthquake in El Salvador caused a mudslide in the neighborhood of Las Colinas on the outskirts of San Salvador. The 7.6 Magnitude hit off the coast of San Miguel. In an instant, tons of mud covered more than 800 homes resulting in over 585 deaths, 193 buried and 125 disappeared. Numerous Search and Rescue groups were sent to Las Colinas to recover victims. Ten years later, four of these rescuers visited Las Colinas to reflect on the present 10 year anniversary by talking about the rescue operation of the past and the earthquake that robbed the lives of over 900 Salvadorans.
Eíder Andrade, a Comando volunteer for more than 25 years was a member of the delegate base in Ayutuxtepeque when he arrived on scene. He reports of being most affected by all the deformed cadavers, yet one scene in particular hit him the hardest. He reports,
“I remember being witness to a mother and a father who were on their knees begging to God when we had disclosed to them that we had found their two infants. One of the infants had lost two hands and the other it’s leg. Seeing them in such a state of chaos and emotional upheaval left an imprint on my mind that will never go away. On that day we recovered many others”.
Eider Andrade
One of the most well known EMS workers of Comandos de Salvamento has been veteran Edgar Jhonny Ramos. Jhonny was one of the few comando rescuers that recovered victims that were still alive. He has turned a rescue helmet he used at the time into a personal icon to the victims. There were two victims that stand out in his mind and he has written their names on his helmet with the amount of hours buried and the date they were recovered.
Jhonny states that what affected him the most was when he helped rescue Sergio Moreno, a keyboardist for the famous Salvadoran group, “Grupo Algodón”. “After we located where Sergio was buried for over 32 hours, we could hear him screaming, ‘Please don’t leave me alone’, so we got him an oxygen line but he was trapped between a wall and his kitchen “pila” sink. We were finally able to extract him but sadly he passed away due to complications after his leg was amputated. He died on January 16th.” This same day though we were able to rescue another live victim. Her name was Antonia Perez, a twenty year old”. Jhonny’s testimony is here on youtube.
Sergio Moreno being rescued.
Jhonny reiterates that he was extremely frustrated because there was no crowd control on scene.
“People were coming to visit the zone as if it were Disneyland, taking photos with their cell phones, I begged them to leave because they could be walking on top of people that were buried and still alive- but they would not listen. The same thing happened in the fall of 2009 during Tropical Storm Ida in San Vicente. (Massive Mudslides from the Chinchotepeque volcano). The Army and National Civilian Police need to design a plan too coordinate crowd control during mass disasters. In the future, more disasters are for sure going to hit El Salvador and people need to be thinking more in the victims and less in updating their facebook status with impressive images of a community in pain”.
Jhonny in 2001.
Jhonny in 2011.
Mark Hoffman, who had been already collaborating with the Central Base of Comandos since 1996 but moved to the states at the time of the disaster had immediately returned knowing what the Comandos would run into. “I knew that this was not another typical “emergencia” for the Comandos, and knowing that they have limited supplies, I gathered up some donations and bought about 30 leather gloves for recovery work. I remember trying to get an extra bag of donations on United Airlines in LAX. They were flexible with this because most of the workers were Salvadoran. This was before volunteering to help during international disasters was an ‘in style’ thing to do”.
What shocked me the most about Las Colinas was not the cadavers or body parts. It was seeing dolls and stuffed animals, family albums, and children’s books. I also became very angry when I saw unbroken dishes. I thought; ‘how could this child’s body be destroyed, yet next to her a delicate crystal glass unscathed?’ There was also something in the air besides the smell of death. It was as if Angels and the spirits of the dead were watching rescuers and family members. We were on holy ground and I felt unworthy for even being there. When I got back to work my boss stated that I was fired for not giving notice. I told him I didn’t give a ‘@#!% while thinking in the horror I had witnessed in El Salvador”.
Mark with group “week 2” in 2001.
Mark and Jhonny in 2011.
CDS Veteran of over 17 years Ricardo Leiva remembers,
“I remember forensic doctors from medicina legal having to cut off fingers for printing and identification. The bodies were already destroyed and it was easier to work that way. I also recall when I was helping to recover Sergio I was told to report to the provisional morgue that was setup to receive bodies and parts. Someone had found a whole body which was rare. A father was buried with a child. They had found him buried hugging his son. They suspect he was reaching for the door to escape when the mudslide hit. When I saw them, rigamortis had already set in and there was the father still embracing his son to protect him”. “I also recall the forensics team from Medicina Legal cutting off fingertips of body pieces for identification”.
Ricardo recovering victims in 2001.
Ricardo in 2011.
Comandos de Salvamento salutes all of it’s volunteers and other rescue/recovery units such as the Red, Green, and Blue Cross, National Firefighters, Camilleros, Mexican Army, the “Moles” from Distrito Federal that worked alongside family members to recover victims.
The following Gallery are images of Las Colinas taken December 6th 2011.
Photo Credit: Mark Hoffman
Press Photographs of the Earthquake.
Mark also took photos of the Rescue operation as he worked alongside Comandos.
Click on the image below for the documentary.
10 years ago, the following webpage was published using photos recovered during operations.