When Dean, a category five storm of historic proportions, slammed down on the coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, crossed the gulf of Mexico, and went on to unleash massive amounts of rainfall upon the central states of Hidalgo, Puebla and Veracruz, government officials stepped across party lines to congratulate one another for their coordinated mitigation and safety efforts, which they credit for having kept the death toll to less than ten.

But the storm tossed the sheet metal, asbestos slabs and thatch that the poor use for shelter into the air, exposing not only the inhabitants beneath, but also the deep fissures that 20 years of strict neo-liberal policy have created within Mexican society.

When Hurricane Dean struck Mexico during the week of August 20, 2007, certain communities in its path fared better than ever before during such a severe storm. But hundreds of thousands of people have been left destitute with little prospects for rebuilding.

What caused these vast differences in the way that people experienced the storm, and what does it tell us about the way in which Mexico and other Latin American countries are likely to experience extreme weather events in the near future?

Officials cite as crucial the readiness of the private insurance industry and reserves of Federal cash to come to the aid of the tourism industry in order to prevent a sudden economic collapse on the two coastlines that were hit.

In fact, hotel owners and operators were better insured this month than before any previous hurricane to date. And in Chetumal, the capital of the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo and the closest large metropolis to path of the eye of the storm, the federal, state and local governments worked in careful coordination to execute previously orchestrated evacuation plans with ample time to spare.

Chetumal's residents calmly brought their belongings to higher ground, boarded up their houses, and left for designated shelters, in time to have supper in safety before the storm made landfall.

However, widespread damage to the crops of indigenous farmers, the destruction of tens of thousands of adobe and cardboard houses, mudslide deaths, and the decimation of rural infrastructure that Hurricane Dean brought with it seemed to earn less air time in national news coverage than the successes of government mitigation efforts.

Even less reported were the confrontations between indigenous Mayan farmers carrying machetes and members of the Mexican Army that had come to evacuate them. For these farmers, the Mexican Army is synonymous with repression and looting, and that reputation has ample empirical evidence to give it credence.

Why was the storm experienced so differently by different people?

The answer lies in an analysis of the last 20 years of Mexico's history. In 1988, President Carlos Salinas introduced neo-liberal reforms to Mexico, beginning the process of privatisation of key industries and services, and in particular, the divestment of the state from rural social services and the phase-out of farm subsidies.

Communal farmland was turned into private property, the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed, and the key objective of the state became the stabilisation of the peso currency, even if, as has been the case, currency stability put wages and prices out of synch in such way as to hurt the wellbeing of the vast majority of Mexico's people.

Nonethelesss, this fiscal policy has its new beneficiaries, not all of whom are the super-rich.

Ever greater numbers of people in Mexico are enjoying higher wages, lower and more stable interest rates and access to U.S.-style consumer outlets such as Wal-Mart.

But this new middle class is by no means the majority.

And let there be no doubt that the rich have been by far the best served, as they enjoy market stability and government bailout schemes on hand to serve them, as is the case with the Yucatan's beach tourism industry in times of a hurricane such as Dean.

The strict macroeconomic fiscal policy that keeps car payments low is also accompanied by selective improvements to government. When the government talks about "transparency," it is talking about greater efficiency and less corruption, but primarily in agencies which serve the interest of the rich and the new urban middle class, such as the case with the municipal Department of Civil Protection in Chetumal.

Other arms of government, such as the armed forces, continue to be less than transparent. Conservative President Felipe Calderon deployed the army to the countryside throughout Mexico this year to "combat drug trafficking" with dubious results. They've been accused of committing crimes in the process, such as the unthinkable rape and murder of a 72-year-old woman in the state of Veracruz, close to where Dean struck.

That case was reported in national left-of-centre newspaper La Jornada and has been taken up by Amnesty International.

Is it any wonder that the rural poor don't want to let the army evacuate them?

It is also likely to take the poor an awfully long time to recover. Prices for farm products are low and there are little or no federal insurance programs for subsistence farmers.

Corn farmers in Yucatan have told me that after 2005's hurricane Wilma aid was either never delivered or was stolen by political bosses. In any case, with remittances from rural migrants in the United States in decline, a lot of people have reduced access to capital assistance.

Many will simply not be able to rebuild their homes and lives. The federal government is saying it will take "two months" to rebuild. But that calculation only includes infrastructure. It does not take into account the deep devastation and lack of support that individuals and communities are facing.

One must certainly praise improvements to government practices such as the efficient evacuation of Chetumal, and the readiness of the government to prevent massive layoffs in the wake of a decimated coastal tourist industry.

But those worst affected by the hurricane - rural and indigenous poor in their majority - are far less able to cope with the aftermath of Dean than ever before. This reality has not yet been recognised by the remote ruling elite in Mexico City.

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