(Mexico City) Mexican health authorities are reporting at least 112 heat-related deaths since the start of the year, acknowledging for the first time the deadly nature of a recent heat wave that the president previously called a invention of alarmist journalists.
The report, released late Wednesday, also noted a significant spike in heat-related deaths over the past two weeks. Since the start of the year, the total number of heat-related deaths has almost tripled compared to 2022.
The Department of Health normally publishes a report on heat-related deaths each week, but in June, at the height of the heat wave, it skipped a week, for reasons that remain unclear.
Deaths peaked in the week of June 18-24, with 69 deaths in one week across the country, an unprecedented figure. In parts of Mexico, temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in recent weeks.
The week of June 11-17 was also exceptionally bad, with 31 deaths nationwide.
Since the start of the year, the highest number of deaths from heat stroke and dehydration have occurred in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, where the industrial heartland of Monterrey is located. .
Last week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed that the growing reports of heat-related deaths were false and part of a media campaign against his administration.
“There is an alarmist trend, a yellow journalism trend,” López Obrador denounced, citing lower death figures that were already exceeded at the time.
The high number of heat-related deaths appears to be partly due not only to the high temperatures, but also to a delay in the arrival of the seasonal rains that normally arrive in Mexico in mid-June and tend to cool things down a bit. .
The Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the delay in reporting the deaths.
It was also not possible to find out why the president thought these deaths were a political problem, possibly because several media outlets claimed that some of the deaths were caused by power cuts to the homes of some of the victims.
Mr. López Obrador is a strong supporter of the public electricity company.