Rioting Erupts in Slums Over Food Ransom for Chilean

Youths in a Santiago slum Thursday stormed a truck carrying food, clothes, toys and building materials before they could be distributed by Chilean church officials as ransom for an army colonel kidnaped by leftist guerrillas.

The Roman Catholic Church began distributing over 150 tons of food and other materials to 13 slum districts of the capital as ransom for Col. Carlos Carreno, who was kidnaped nearly three months ago by the Manuel Rodgriguez Patriotic Front.

The rebels have promised to free Correno within 24 hours of the start of the deliveries. Each district was to receive around 15 tons of goods, including 500 food baskets, two tons of nails, asbestos board and 600 plastic soccer balls.

There was mayhem in the La Victoria district, one of Santiago’s toughest slums, where youths stormed a truck carrying food, clothes, toys and building materials before church officials could organize the distribution.

Carreno, deputy director of the army’s munitions factory, has been held since Sept. 1, and his abduction is the longest political kidnaping to be staged in Chile since the military took power in the 1973 coup.