More frozen bodies were recovered from an area of the Chilean Andes on Saturday, bringing to 21 the number of confirmed dead after 45 young conscripts were lost in a blizzard in the Chilean army’s worst peacetime disaster.
The commander in chief of the Chilean army vowed to continue the search ”until the last one of them is with us”, but he has admitted that those still missing since the blizzard struck on Wednesday are probably dead.
”The bodies were found in the same condition as the others, perfectly identifiable,” General Juan Emilio Cheyre said, announcing the latest recoveries at a military base in the town of Los Angeles, near where the tragedy occurred.
Wrenching scenes of relatives receiving the bodies of their loved ones contrasted with the jubilation of families reunited with 112 soldiers who returned to Los Angeles on Saturday. They survived by crowding into a mountain shelter when the blizzard struck, military sources said.
Search teams, at times hindered by new storms, have combed the area since then as the nation reeled and President Ricardo Lagos announced three days of national mourning.
The soldiers went missing on Wednesday when they were caught in a sudden blizzard while on a march in the high Andes near Antuco, not far from Los Angeles, about 500km south of Santiago.
Lagos flew into the area on Saturday to attend a religious service for the lost soldiers and personally express condolences to relatives of the victims, most of whom were conscripts doing mandatory military service who got caught in a snowstorm ”whiteout”.
Standing before the coffins containing the recovered soldiers’ bodies, Lagos said: ”Today we bid farewell to these soldiers of the Chilean army as heroes of peace.”
Speaking to the families of soldiers, Lagos gave his and his wife Luisa Duran’s condolences, speaking ”not as authorities but as parents … who know how hard it is to lose a child”.
”We would like to be able to hold you in a strong embrace, the embrace of the millions of Chileans whose thoughts have been with each and every one of you these past few days,” he said, barely able to contain his emotion.
Earlier, in his annual address to lawmakers, made at Valparaiso before he headed south to the area of the tragedy, an emotional Lagos said ”our souls and our hearts are in Antuco”.
”I think that the tragedy that has befallen us must help us, as have other tragic times in our history, to overcome them,” said Lagos, who called for ”building a better Chile”.
Cheyre has removed three commanders of the regiment from their posts and ordered an investigation.
”The march should not have been started, never, under those conditions. It was the worst snowstorm in 30 years,” he said. ”Those were officers specialised in mountaineering and they should have known better.”
Private Juan Millar (18) said it was snowing so hard he could not see.
”At one point, I fell to the ground and nearly fainted. The lieutenant told us to drop our backpacks and save our lives.”
Millar trudged through the snow, as exhausted comrades tumbled into drifts. Corporals pulled some on to sleeping bags, which they used as sleds.
One captain found on Friday, Claudio Gutierrez, refused to come to safety and joined the search. Another 110 soldiers made it to a shelter and are waiting until the weather clears.
Millar is haunted by what had happened.
”I looked back and saw some comrades fall. The corporals picked them up. But when they couldn’t help any more, I didn’t want to look.” — Sapa-AFP, Guardian Unlimited Â