Troops mobilized in Peru after quake

LIMA -- Faced with looting by armed gangs in Peru's southern region devastated by Wednesday's earthquake and under strain of electricity blackouts and short supplies of food and water, authorities said yesterday that they were sending 600 soldiers in an attempt to impose order.

Defense Minister Allan Wagner Tizon said the extra troops would bring the number of military personnel to 1,000 in the cities of Pisco, Ica, Cañete, and Chincha Alta, which were hardest hit by the earthquake. The death toll has risen to more than 500.

In Pisco, where hundreds of people died in homes and in a church that collapsed, soldiers from Peru's special forces patrolled streets near the central plaza. Hungry residents looted a market looking for food on Friday, while others pillaged trucks carrying food and supplies on the highway from Lima, the capital.

"The people have lost respect for the police, and that's why the armed forces have been sent," said Lieutenant Giancarlos Vernal while on patrol in Pisco. "At night, the thieves enter homes and take what they can."

Responding to the earthquake is the first major test of the government of President Alan Garcia, whose term began last year. Garcia said yesterday that he was not ready to impose a curfew in the region but that he was prepared to "saturate" earthquake-affected areas with police forces if necessary.

Disorder spread from Pisco to other coastal cities, according to local news media reports, with much of the looting and armed robberies reported in Chincha Alta and Ica. The authorities attributed some of the crime to escaped prisoners from Tambo de Mora prison in Chincha Alta. Hundreds of prisoners escaped after one of the prison's walls crumbled in the earthquake.

Meanwhile, aftershocks, including one that briefly shook high-rise buildings as far north as Lima on Friday night, kept many people in Peru on edge. And in Pisco yesterday, there was a noticeable increase in the arrival of trucks carrying aid and tractors for clearing debris.

Despite temperatures that dipped into the low 50s in the desert night, many residents in Pisco slept outside their destroyed homes to protect their belongings from looters and scavengers.

"We're in the street without food, without blankets," said Margarita Quintanilla, 62, a street vendor who slept near her daughter and grandchildren in front of their crumbled home. Quintanilla said she was worried her wares, electronic goods, might be irretrievable.

"Everything just fell down," she said. "Now we have nothing."

Some reports said trucks carrying aid at the entrance to the city had been looted. And rumors spread yesterday that cholera and other diseases could emerge.

About 30,000 tents are needed in the region until homes are rebuilt, said Milo Stanojevich, the director in Peru for CARE, the international relief organization.

Stanojevich said about 80 percent of buildings in Pisco and 25 percent in Ica had collapsed, and that farther inland in Huancavelica, Peru's poorest city, about 40 percent of homes had been destroyed and that residents there had no access to clean water.

Relief efforts were being initiated by foreign governments and aid groups, according to Agence France-Presse. Donor nations included the United States, Japan, Canada, Spain, Italy, and France.

The United Nations said that it was preparing to help, and the International Federation of the Red Cross said that it had sent two planes loaded with supplies.

Also, Bloomberg News reported that the European Commission announced that it was increasing its aid package to 2 million euros, or about $2.7 million, in relief.