Death in the Americas

A landslide in Costa Rica earlier today has killed at least 20 people, with another 14 missing as of 9:00 P.M.  Hopefully, the death toll lowers in the morning, similar to recent stories from Mexico where initial estimates were too high.  As is the case with most natural disasters, the poor were likely to have suffered disproportionately.

President Laura Chinchilla said at least 20 bodies had been pulled out the debris, including four minors. She declared Friday and Saturday as days of national mourning because of the tragedy.

The landslide in the suburb of San Antonio de Escazu followed two days of heavy rains that flooded a river near the town and sent 1,500 people to shelters across Costa Rica...

Flory Quintero, who lives nearby, said: "I know 20 families lived there together. Some were very poor and had settled near the banks of the river. When it happened, it sounded like a turbine."

And in Cuba, a plane carrying 68 people, including 61 passengers and 7 crew members, crashed en route from Santiago de Cuba to Havana.  Twenty-eight foreigners were on board. 

The AeroCaribbean Santiago de Cuba-to-Havana flight crashed about half way, going down in the village of Guasimal in the area of Sancti Spiritus...

The plane was an ATR twin turboprop aircraft that belonged to Cuba's state-owned AeroCaribbean airline.

The pilot radioed that the plane was having problems before it plummeted to the ground, said NBC News, monitoring Cuban media reports.

A terrible accident (we hope).  This seems like a great opportunity for the US to work with Cuba on a joint investigation into the crash.  We have a highly regarded NTSB that's had to deal with too many crashes and I don't remember hearing too much about recent Cuban plane crashes.  That would make too much sense.  However, I can't see it happening given the state of our bilateral relations.