'Three years' for Chile quake recovery

Chile believes it will take three years to recover from the devastation caused by its massive earthquake.

President Michelle Bachelet said she was confident "Chile will rise" from the devastation – but not as fast as some might want.

"It's going to be – it's going to be very hard moving ahead," she said.

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Powerful aftershocks continued to rock the area. A magnitude-6.0 aftershock shook the quake-hit city of Concepcion yesterday sending frightened residents running out of buildings in their underwear. Several hours later, a magnitude-6.6 shake – the strongest since Sunday – sent people fleeing into the streets yet again.

Many are pinning their hopes for renewal on the new president, conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera, who takes office next week.

Mr Pinera named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work even before his inauguration. His immediate priorities: find the missing people, ensure law and order, restore utilities and tend to the injured.

He also stepped up his criticism of Ms Bachelet as he called for a sweeping modernisation of Chile's disaster system to eliminate what he called "the lack of co-ordination and the weaknesses that this tragedy has uncovered with brutal eloquence".

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The president-elect said his administration will work more closely with the military on disasters than she has done, and he pledged to rebuild "with the most modern and efficient standards."

Critics said Ms Bachelet initially was reluctant to summon the military to stop looting and deliver aid, given the brutal repression of the Chilean left in the past, especially during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.