Hola:

This is not a shell related letter but I feel I must write it;

I want to say thanks to all the Nations and to all the individuals that are
helping my country, and the only place I have to say that is here.

The rain season was terminated and we were in the beginning of the dry season
when rain came; big rain; all the coastline has been damaged, but in the central
part that was horrible; the north part of the Avila, the mountain over Caracas,
slipped down to the sea carriing several towns with it; 80% of the people working
at the airport is missing; the cargo that was at the port was floating in the
sea; La Guaira, an old colonial town is nowhere; in Los Corales, Naiguata, Los
Caracas and other towns at the coast the debris piled to the third floor of the
buildings; yesterday the army was unable to reach La Guaira; I do not know what
they do today; the Navy, with helicopters, is evacuating people; they are trying
to use landing boats, but the newspaper says that this is very dangerous, because
the shoreline has changed and is changing; there in the mountain, they did not
find the small town of Galipan, it slipped down; what they found was a 10 years
child who had came from the coast; there, in Galipan, the flowers town, was the
house of Reveron, the beloved artist, a cultural shrine.

They are sending the people to places where relatives live; we, in Merida, have
received sveral hundreds; one hundred babys and toddlers are with the nuns; these
are unindentify. We expect more. They are in good hands; there are queues to
give; it is a chant to god to see people so poor with some beans or some corn
flour; they have taken off their mouth a morsel of food to give it to their
brethen.

It is expected that there are 15,000 to 20,000 deaths and 150.00 to 200.000
without house. There are places that they are not looking for corpses; they are
going to declare those places graveyards.

We are going to have a Happy Christmas.but with a cloud in the heart; the
children do not know and Christmas is the children festivity; we do not use the
tree, we use the San Francisco 'pesebre';

Happy Christmas

Emilio Lspez
Merida, Venezuela