Two years after Chile's devastating earthquake, the failure to issue a tsunami warning and the slow pace of reconstruction are shaping politics ahead of the 2013 election to choose President Sebastian Pinera's successor. The magnitude-8.8 quake and the tsunami it triggered before dawn on February 27, 2010, destroyed 220,000 homes and obliterated ports, riverfronts, and seaside resorts. The government reported 524 deaths, with 181 killed by the tsunami. This disaster presented unprecedented challenges and opportunities for Pinera, a conservative billionaire whose election ended 20 years of center-left governance in Chile when he succeeded Michelle Bachelet less than two weeks after the quake. Determined to solidify his image as a capable leader, Pinera committed his government to providing temporary shelter for all victims within months and moving everyone into decent housing before the next winter.
However, as Chile approaches its third post-quake winter, 3,000 families still live in flimsy wooden shacks, and political coalitions on both the right and left are trying to blame each other for the failures following the quake, keeping an eye on the November 2013 elections. This month, Pinera's government praised a prosecutor’s request for charges of negligence leading to homicide against eight former officials from the civil protection and navy offices that mishandled the tsunami warnings in critical moments and hours after the quake. The president's opponents see this criminal case as an attempt to subtly assign political responsibility for the deaths to Bachelet.
Bachelet, who remains in the public spotlight as the head of the United Nations women's agency, still enjoys an 80 percent approval rating and represents the center-left's best hope for regaining control of the government. Since the disaster, Chile has strengthened its early warning systems, but post-quake analysis revealed that key officials did not do everything they could have done to warn people of the danger based on the available information. ONEMI (the interior ministry's national emergency office) blamed the navy's hydrographic and oceanographic service, which is responsible for assessing tsunami risks and notifying ONEMI. Initially, the navy office did issue a warning after the 3:34 a.m. quake but then rescinded it within the hour. Even during that period, ONEMI failed to order evacuations. Thousands of people, aware of Chile's vulnerability to tsunamis, fled the coast regardless and saved themselves.
"Faced with a catastrophe, the first priority of a government, based on the available information and evidence, is to provide early and effective alerts and establish the necessary means to evacuate when danger exists," Pinera said at a ceremony Friday at the naval base in Talcahuano, near the quake's epicenter. "Unfortunately, on February 27, 2010, we did not fulfill this important task with the required effort and efficiency, and this error probably cost many human lives," added Pinera, who, like all Chilean presidents, serves a single four-year term.
While his center-right government focuses on the initial quake response, the center-left opposition is challenging the reconstruction achievements of his administration. Pinera stated that nearly 100 percent of infrastructure has been rebuilt, public buildings are 58 percent reconstructed, and construction has begun on 136,000 homes to replace the 220,000 that were destroyed.