some more from Chile

Translation of a comunicado found at http://www.hommodolars.org/web/spip.php?article3005 wrote:

Urgent situation in Concepción

Companeros, we're writing to all of you in order to communicate the delicate situation which the people of Concepción are currently find themselves in. It has been covered in detail by the media in a morbid and disgusting fashion, backing the excessive militarisation and security plans that are so ridiculous that they only allow for six hours of "free movement" a day. We also want to denounce the shortages which affect the great majority of the city's population, who have heard many promises but few solutions.

1. Up to this point, not one [representative of the] authorities - apart from soldiers - has appeared on our streets, not even to survey the damage that their own people might have received in the earthquake or, ultimately, to find out whether we're alive or dead.

2. In the Aguita de la Perdiz area, for example, residents became desperate (remember that it was the end of the month and noone had a peso, let alone food stored in the house [payday tends to be on the 15th or 30th of the month - CDB]), so they went en masse to expropriate the stock of the Santa Isabel supermarket - which doesn't sell either electronic household goods nor luxury items - so the residents only took what was necessary, ie food and water. We can clarify that similar happened in various parts of the city, and that the over-repeated image of the guy taking away a plasma TV has not generally been the case (neither do we condemn the looting of electronic household items; we're just confirming that this happened on a small scale in comparison with the expropriation of indispensible products such as food, water, milk).

3. Because of this, the authorities have "punished" various sectors, leaving them without aid or access to basic services. This has been publically admitted to the press by the Mayor (and soon to be regional governor).

4. PDI [investigative police - CBD] functionaries have spread utterly absurd rumours, such as that "hoards" of criminals are going to come from the outermost reaches of the city ([even though] there's no petrol and there's military everywhere, so we're wondering if the hoards have helicopters). This has created an atmosphere of great paranoia and insecurity and has led to residents forming themselves into groups which patrol their respective sector all night with sticks and firearms, a really dangerous development considering how tiredness, tension and hunger could ignite violence between neighbours.

5. Right now, food is starting to become scarce in marginalised areas and there is no money to go and buy more, since wage packets were supposed to be received next week.

6. The sanitary conditions are shocking, and children and the eldery are starting to fall ill. The surgery and hospital [buildings] both collapsed and it is only a matter of time before people start to die of preventable illnesses.

7. Aid HAS STILL NOT ARRIVED [caps theirs - CDB], and organisation has been late, to say the least. We recall the image of neighbours on the barricades, looking out for their houses while laughing to themselves over the contrived news story of "Chile helping Chile". We all know how quickly the rich acted to protect their order, their nation and their assets. We don't buy the campaigns they've started seven days after the earthquake, when in those seven days, if people hadn't have looted, they would have starved to death.

We understand that what happened was a natural disaster - and that the situation is much more critical in areas such as Talcahunao, Penco, Coronel and the villages in the interior of the Maule region - but to "punish" an entire sector for not respecting the established order, an act which says to us "let the rich buy all their stuff in the supermarket and you can figure out how to sort yourselves out, you'll always be the last and you should understand that", seems - to us - be a criminal act, at least.

Finally, the rumours propagated by the PDI can - and MUST [caps theirs] - be considered to be terrorist acts, since they look to (and suceed in) terrifying the populace.

Thanks to Caiman Del Barrio in Venezuela for the translation