A gendarme has been identified as the first reported Argentine victim of Wednesday morning’s deadly earthquake in Haiti.
First Corporal Gustavo Gómez’s body was found under the debris of the collapsed UN peace envoys operating on the island. The corporal was part of the humanitarian mission, ‘Minustah’, in Port-Au-Prince, where the quake caused thousands of deaths and serious structural damage.
33 year old Gómez had been on the island since 29th April 2009 and was supposed to remain there until next August, when he would come back to Buenos Aires to his wife and two children.
The Argentine Gendarmerie is composed of 20 men, 14 of whom are members of the ‘Minustah’ mission. The other six men provide security to the Argentine embassy in Haiti.
Due to the total collapse of communication systems in the area, the local authorities have reported that they have been thus far “unable to establish communication with another member of the contingent located on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince”.
