Class war has broken out in the city that bore the brunt of the Chilean earthquake and tsunami and the wave of looting that followed. Aid has just arrived in Concepción but it is the rich who are being fed first.
“The first food deliveries were for the middle class, because the lower class had been stealing from the supermarkets,” said Carlos González Sánchez, the Cabinet chief of the municipal council.
“The focus of the looting was small bands of thieves from the poblaciones [poor neighbourhoods]. The curfew has had a good result. The situation is now under control.”
Nevertheless the poor must wait their turn. “On the first day 13,000 plastic shopping bags of supplies — rice, vegetables, oil, cereal, nappies, milk and coffee — were delivered to middle-class areas,” Mr Sánchez said.
At a small encampment on the side of the Bío-Bío River, five families are living in tents and shelters made of plastic sheeting “My roof fell down,” said María Elvengo Porter. “I cook with water from a swimming pool. The water has chlorine in it.”
Three flags hang over the camp: the Chilean one, a white flag — for peace — and a black flag made of a plastic bag. “It’s a cry for help from the Government,” Ms Porter said.
So far no help has arrived.
Two teenage boys demonstrated their home-made weapons — a blade shoved into a wooden pole, and a hoe. “We took food from the supermarkets, but only food, no TVs, just what we need,” Ms Porter said.
The situation is equally desperate in nearby Talcahuano, where 400 residents from the badly damaged, poor fishing community of Caleta el Morro have built an encampment on a hill. “The authorities don’t help,” Consuelo Neira, 58 said.
“Everything I had in life has gone,” said Eliana Capalan, in tears. “Help from the Government? Nothing.”
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