64 Arrested in Chile After Pre-Dawn Raids on Homes

Armed detectives raided more than 100 homes of people from leftist parties and opposition groups before dawn Saturday, arresting 64, after violent protests against Chile’s military government last week in which 10 people died.

In addition to the 64 people being held, the Chilean human rights commission said others whose homes were raided had been notified of charges against them under internal security laws.

The pre-dawn raids followed a pledge by the government to punish those blamed for protests against the rule of President Augusto Pinochet in a Santiago slum last week.

Charges under internal security laws have been announced against 97 people accused of inciting trouble. Under emergency powers, the government can also hold people for three weeks or send them into internal exile for three months without bringing charges.

Army troops in jeeps and trucks continued to guard Santiago’s main traffic intersections and patrol militant working-class neighborhoods where riots erupted over three consecutive nights.

Police said 10 people, including a 6-year-old boy, died in the riots.

Scores of supermarkets, bakeries and other shops on this Andean capital’s impoverished perimeter were ransacked in what authorities called an unprecedented three-day looting spree instigated by left-wing extremists.

Vandalism Subsides

The Retail Merchants Chamber reported losses of 100 million pesos, or $500,000, in the looting of more than 30 shops, including a market ransacked by an estimated 1,000 shanty dwellers who carried off food in shopping carts.

The vandalism had continued after a more widespread one-day protest Wednesday against Pinochet, who overthrew the elected Marxist government of President Salvador Allende in a military coup 12 years ago next Wednesday.

It appeared to subside Friday after army Gen. Rene Vidal, commander of the Santiago military zone, announced that anyone “surprised in acts of vandalism, looting, sabotage and terrorism . . . will risk all the consequences of any measures the authorities feel obligated to take.”

The warning came as hospital authorities reported the death of Rafael Antonio Gallardo, 6, who was shot in the neck Friday morning while playing outside his home.