Mexico to give interest subsidies, but no loans, to Acapulco hotels destroyed by Hurricane Otis

abcnews.go.com:

The Mexican government says it will pay half of interest rates on bank loans to rebuild the 377 hotels destroyed or heavily damaged by Hurricane Otis

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government said Wednesday it will assume half of the interest rates on bank loans to help rebuild the 377 hotels destroyed or heavily damaged after Hurricane Otis slammed into the resort city last week.

But President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will not provide government loans to the hotels, the backbone of the local economy.

The hotels currently have no cash flow — and face months of work to repair windows and walls blown out by the Category 5 hurricane — so it is unclear how many private banks would be willing to lend them money.

López Obrador announced a package of $3.4 billion in aid for the resort. Much of that will be spent on payments of between $2,000 and $3,000 per damaged home, on temporary job programs and free electricity for residents for several months.

He also said his government would build dozens of barracks to station National Guard troops in Acapulco, despite the fact Guard officers were already present in the port, but were unable to prevent widespread ransacking of stores following the hurricane.

López Obrador also promised about 250,000 packages of appliances and weekly food packages for each family, saying local chain stores had agreed to help — despite the fact that almost every large grocery and department store in the resort was ransacked and heavily damaged.

Officials have bounced back and forth on the death toll from Otis, citing figures ranging from 46 to 48.

López Obrador has claimed his opponents are trying to inflate the toll to damage him politically, but with hundreds of families still awaiting word from loved