Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times Residents of a Concepcion, Chile neighborhood complain to a soldier about the lack of food and water distribution in the city in the days following this weekend's earthquake. There was little evidence of government assistance in the city other than the presence of the soldiers and police on Tuesday.

CONCEPCION, Chile - The Chilean army marched into this wrecked city Tuesday, rounding up looters and receiving the applause of besieged survivors of the weekend's massive earthquake.

Despite Chile's tortured history with the military, the armed forces now are being looked upon by many here as their savior - a necessary, if slow-in-coming, show of force in the face of utter disaster and deteriorating security.

Within the first 48 hours of the temblor, one of the strongest recorded, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared a state of emergency in the hardest-hit regions, putting them under military control, deploying troops and instituting a curfew. For some Chileans, the extreme measures were a throwback to the darkest moments of their national history.

It was the first time such measures were taken in the 20 years since democracy was restored to Chile, after decades of brutal military dictatorship led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Marlene Elizabeth Franco, a 39-year-old mother of three, said roving bands of vandals had been terrifying neighborhoods in the aftermath of the magnitude 8.8 quake that roared through central and southern Chile before dawn Saturday, killing at least 800 people.

"It feels like we are living in a war zone," she said through tears, recounting the dark, sleepless nights in which her husband and others stand guard, armed with sticks and clubs against thieves and vandals with pistols.

"I believe in democracy," she continued, "but right now we have complete disorder. It is important to have a police and army presence on the streets."

A pall of acrid smoke hung over Concepcion on Tuesday after vandals torched a downtown shopping center on Monday - once they had finished clearing it of goods. Looting here in Chile's second-largest city, combined with mounting protests about the lack of food, water and aid, alarmed the government of President Bachelet and prompted authorities to prolong an overnight curfew to noon Tuesday.

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