MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile’s tsunami victims protest violently demanding government honours aid promises

“We have been patient for 18 months” say Dichato residents, whose town was 70% destroyed by the tsunami

Residents of Dichato, Chile, capped off a week of demonstrations with violent protests to demand the government revamp assistance efforts for victims of the tsunami that devastated the area in February 2010.

“We have been patient for 18 months,” Lorena Arce, Dichato resident and leader of Dichato's Citizen Assembly Movement, told The Santiago Times. People are tired of waiting for reconstruction projects to come to a close. After so much time, Arce said, the reaction was bound to be extensive.

“We are not violent,” Arce said of Dichato residents. She insisted the Saturday protests were instead “a violent reaction to 18 months without help.”

Like many of her neighbours, Arce has been living in temporary housing since Feb. 27, 2010, when nearly 70% of Dichato was destroyed in a tsunami following the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Chile.

Since the incident, Arce said, not one house has been fully repaired with government assistance.

“It’s a disaster,” Arce said of reconstruction projects.

Starting last Monday, residents in the “campamento” (shantytown) El Molino and the surrounding communities took to the streets by the dozens for gatherings and discussions of the issue.

By Saturday, however, the demonstrations became heated, as activists lit fires to barricade public transportation and block access to the typically sleepy beach town until Concepción Governor Alejandro Reyes agreed to meet with them and review their petition for reform. Four people were arrested following the protest.

Among the residents’ demands are long-term requests including housing for all residents regardless of financial or marital status; reconstruction of the local school and fire station; and assurances that landowners will be returned their land.

In addition, protestors insisted on immediate relief to aid residents. Included in these requests are US$323 winter vouchers to subsidize heating costs and US$107 vouchers for food.

Regional Governor Víctor Lobos plans to announce a formal response Wednesday concerning the demands and how the government plans to move forward.

“We are ready to meet with them and let them know what we are doing,” Lobos told El Mercurio. Complying with construction requests, Lobos added, will cost an estimated US$45 million.

But the costs of not doing so, protesters assure, will be comparably high.

“We no longer fear going out into the streets,” Ximena Toledo, speaker for Sector Four of El Molino—which houses 450 families—told El Mercurio. “If there are not solutions by that day (Wednesday), the future protests will be more radical.”

Voicing support for the student movement and workers strikes against privatization, Arce theorized that the activism in Dichato is a microcosm of a bigger issue concerning how and where the Chilean government allocates money.

“It is embarrassing the way this country is being run,” Arce said. “With the money Chile has they could rebuild 100 new Dichatos.”

By Adeline Bash – The Santiago Times