Hondurans call for widow to be mayor

"I just ask God to make me strong," she said. "That's what my husband would want."

And, it seems, what the people of Tegucigalpa want as well.

Residents are pushing the grieving woman to take her late husband's post as mayor of the capital, which was crippled by Hurricane Mitch's fury. Carlos Castellanos was killed in a helicopter crash while surveying the damage.

Now, supporters want his wife to keep alive the memory of a man affectionately known as "the hardworking little fat guy" - and possibly to carry through his dream of becoming president, which he seemed poised to realize.

"His death left us with a great emptiness," said Jesus Rubio, who was trying to sell the sand that buried his home. "He was our hope for change, and since she was his companion, there is no one better than her to carry out what he left unfinished."

An overwhelming majority of capital residents apparently agree.

In a country not known for honest civil servants - the previous mayor was jailed on corruption charges - Castellanos seemed the exception.

Already the front-runner for 2001 presidential elections, the hefty leader forged through whipping rain into high-risk areas when Hurricane Mitch struck, knocking on doors to evacuate residents before the Choluteca River ripped apart his city.

Tegucigalpa suffered its worst flooding in 200 years during the hurricane that killed as many as 7,000 people across the country. In northern Honduras yesterday, more than 7,000 survivors prepared to evacuate their homes amid fears that more rain could produce flooding.

In the capital, entire neighborhoods remain buried. More than 30,000 people are homeless, about 12,500 unemployed because of the storm. More than a third of the city's bridges are gone. More than 200 factories no longer exist.

The already cash-strapped city government needs at least $350 million to get Tegucigalpa up to speed.

The area around the central market is a sea of putrid trash. Godies continue to be pulled from the debris. This week, authorities found the decapitated body of a woman in a downtown building. Nearby, desperate people wrestled in the muck for a pile of muddy toys they could sell.

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