SANTIAGO, Chile â?? Two years after Chileâ??s devastating earthquake, the failure to give a tsunami warning and a slow reconstruction effort are shaping politics ahead of the 2013 election to pick President Sebastian Pineraâ??s successor.
The magnitude-8.8 quake and the tsunami it unleashed before dawn on Feb. 27, 2010, destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away ports, riverfronts and seaside resorts. The government counted 524 dead, 181 of them killed by the tsunami.
The disaster presented unprecedented challenges and opportunities for Pinera, a conservative billionaire whose election ended 20 years of center-left rule in Chile when he succeeded Michelle Bachelet less than two weeks after the quake.
Seeking to cement his can-do image, Pinera committed his government to providing shelter for every victim within months and moving everyone into a decent home before the following winter.
Yet with Chileâ??s third post-quake winter approaching, 3,000 families still crowd into flimsy wooden shacks, and political coalitions on the right and left are looking to blame each other for quake failings with an eye on the November 2013 elections.
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