Mexico explains decision to flood poor, Indigenous areas

 Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obror said Monday he h to face a tough decision on wher to allow a big city to be flooded, or to direct excess water to poorer, more sparsely populated Indigeus areas. president, whose slogan has always been “ poor come first,” chose latter.

“It hurts me a lot,” López Obror said, while ting “re would have been a lot more people affected" h city of Villahermosa been flooded. He promised to drag river channels and reduce focus on hydroelectric power production at a dam whose outflow contributed to problem.

López Obror defended his decision to open strategic floodgates, saying it avoided a major flood in Villahermosa, capital of Gulf coast state of Tabasco and home to over 350,000 people.

Tabasco is president's home state, and heavy rains re have affected about 161,000 inhabitants whose homes were flooded or h to be evacuated.

But he said on Sunday that when a dam in Tabasco reached capacity, water h to be released and “we h to choose lesser of two evils, and t flood Villahermosa.”

“That later hurt people of Nacajuca and Chontal (Indigeus) region, poorest people, but we h to make a decision,” López Obror said. largely rural township of Nacajuca has about 83,000 inhabitants.