Quake-devastated Chile deploys troops to halt looting, facilitate aid

CONSTITUCION, Chile — Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday that nearly 14,000 army and navy troops deployed throughout Chile’s earthquake-devastated coastal communities had contained looting and were clearing the way for aid to be distributed.

Speaking in Santiago,
the capital, Bachelet said 50 military flights with food, water and
other supplies were headed Tuesday to the hardest-hit regions.

“Our concern is to give security and calm to the
population,” she said. “We understand perfectly the anguish and
overwhelming needs of the people, but we know well that the criminal
actions of small groups of people are provoking enormous physical
damage … and will not be tolerated.”

An overnight curfew in Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, was extended until noon Tuesday to contain looting and vandalism that plagued the area Monday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Tuesday in Santiago with pledges of support.

On Monday, government troops had struggled to halt
looting, rampant in earthquake-leveled parts of the country even as
government troops deployed in armored vehicles and on horseback to
restore order and protect shipments of food and water. Scores of people
were arrested Monday for having violated an overnight curfew.

With the death toll creeping higher, Chile
continued to reel from Saturday’s massive magnitude 8.8 quake, one of
the strongest on record. At least 763 people were killed, the
government said, and many remained missing.

Numerous oceanfront towns, such as Lloca, Dichato and Constitucion, were devastated first by the quake and then, minutes later, by a tsunami, a kind of seismic coup de grace.

“We need food! We need water!” said a beleaguered Cesar Arrellano on Monday. The municipal comptroller in Constitucion had received unrelenting reports of damage, death and the desperate need for help.

Concepcion seemed to be suffering the brunt of
post-disaster chaos. Looters raided a firehouse in search of water and
gasoline, which were in short supply; others later torched a shopping
center.

Concepcion Mayor Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe said Monday that looters were moving in organized packs and attacking
firefighters and city workers attempting to distribute water.

Fire raged Monday in a downtown Concepcion shopping
mall. A radio reporter said she saw people in a vehicle toss a Molotov
cocktail into the collection of stores just before the fire erupted.
Firefighters could do nothing: They had no water. The building, looted
earlier in the day, was collapsing under the flames.

President Michelle Bachelet imposed emergency decrees, including putting the army in charge of hard-hit areas, measures not taken in 20 years.

In Constitucion, caskets were stacked in the town gym, which had been converted into a morgue.

Bachelet declared a 30-day state of emergency for the coastal states of Bio Bio and Maule.

It was the first time a government had taken action to suspend some civil rights since democracy was restored to Chile in 1990.

Using the army for public security is still a
sensitive subject in a country that endured nearly two decades of
military dictatorship before the 1990 ouster of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s regime.

The possibility of a “social explosion” quickly
emerged as the government’s “worst fear,” the leading Chilean newspaper
El Mercurio reported, noting the emergency decree was agreed to only
after intense debate because of its potential symbolism.

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