A dozen police officers, kept warm by an open fire, gathered in a school courtyard around one of the few operating TV sets in downtown Constitucion late on Friday to watch a telethon aimed at raising funds for their quake-hit country.
The 24-hour event was broadcast live from a theater in Santiago and hosted by the Chilean-born Don Francisco, a popular variety show host with the US Spanish-language network Univision.
The officers, known as Carabineros, were from a police school in Santiago who were rushed to this seaside resort town south of Santiago to help quell the looting that followed the massive magnitude 8.8 quake that struck the region one week ago. They were staying at a school next to the main town square.
“I want to ask you with all my heart to reach into your pocket for a donation,” said Soledad Onetto, a reporter from Channel 13 who Don Francisco interviewed.
Onetto gave a live report on how the country was recovering, speaking from a street nearby with collapsed walls and dangling wires in the background.
A tsunami that followed the earthquake slammed Constitucion’s waterfront, destroying seaside homes and businesses and sweeping a still unknown number of victims to sea.
Many of the roughly 800 quake victims were from the Constitucion area.
Don Francisco said that the theater where the show was held had a smaller crowd than usual — and with strong quake aftershocks still common in central Chile, he also mentioned that the building was earthquake-safe.
The officers perked up when Don Francisco introduced outgoing Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Bachelet rallied Chileans, urging viewers to “join in helping those most in need.”
The UN leader began by praising Chile’s quick response to the Haitian earthquake last month.
“Now it is only natural that the international community should stand with the Chilean people in its time of need,” he said, with the host translating into Spanish.
He also mentioned the most affected Chilean town, including Constitucion, affectionately known locally as “Consti.”
One of the officers, Corporal Milton Munoz, had a lump in his throat after Bachelet and Ban spoke. When it comes to responding to the earthquake “there are no political differences,” he said. “Here we’re all together.”
But many Constitucion residents missed the show because power has not been fully restored to much of the city.
A large number of them also do not know the extent of the destruction: Hundreds have fled to the town’s hillside neighborhoods, and fearful of more quakes and another tsunami, have not returned.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS