Thousands of troops were on high alert across quake-ravaged Chile yesterday as armed vigilantes patroled neighborhoods to ward off looters and soldiers distributed emergency aid to desperate survivors.
With the country’s reputation for stability at stake, officials raced to help thousands of homeless and hungry, but they also were scrambling to defuse an explosive situation in cities and towns where gangs of looters roamed the streets after one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured.
“The thugs have taken over the city. Now we are not afraid of the earthquakes, we’re afraid of the criminals,” Hualpen Mayor Marcelo Rivera told a radio station.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, forced into defending government efforts to maintain order and coordinate rescue and relief operations for thousands of homeless and hungry, doubled the number of troops patrolling the worst-hit areas to 14,000.
An 18-hour curfew was also imposed in Concepcion, where armored military vehicles guarded strategic points of Chile’s hard-hit second city.
“Military personnel will be present in the streets of Concepcion until midday to maintain public order, and they will not waver in carrying out their duties,” General Guillermo Ramirez said.
Similar exceptional curfews were also imposed on six other towns badly damaged by Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude quake, which has killed some 800 people and affected 2 million in total, or one-eighth of the population.
Chile’s president-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office next Thursday, said the unrest caused by looters was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“It simply worsens the already catastrophic situation we’re in,” he said, adding his support for Bachelet’s efforts to restore order, which have come in for criticism.
“This is not the time to evaluate the performance of the government. This is not the time to cast blame ... This is the time to provide solutions, and evaluations can come later,” Pinera said.
Bachelet, outraged at reports of stores being looted and torched, said it was unacceptable that “people have to organize mechanisms for their self-defense, just to hold onto the few possessions that they still have after the earthquake.”
Rivera urged the government to send in a contingent of troops, and grimly warned: “If they have to kill, then let them kill.”
Bachelet defended her handling of the crisis as the first aid supplies began trickling into worst-affected areas, and she said troops had fanned out with water and food.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Santiago on Tuesday and delivered satellite phones requested by Bachelet, whom she greeted with a hug at the airport.
Canada joined the growing list of governments making pledges of aid, committing up to US$2 million to help quake victims.
Brazil said it was sending two Blackhawk helicopters with medical relief equipment ahead of a larger craft with additional supplies, while Cuba said it would send a 27-person medical team.
Chile’s death toll was expected to rise sharply as relief teams reached more isolated areas, including fishing villages and resorts wrecked by huge waves.
“Some 600 people died in this area, but the toll could climb to 1,000,” said General Bosco Pesse, who is running emergency operations in the Maule region.
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