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SOUTH
AMERICA: CHILE |
Chilean President Retains
Popularity Despite Criticism Over Quake
Response
SANTIAGO - Outgoing Chilean President
Michelle Bachelet, who will leave Chile's
presidency Thursday, has sustained the
record 84-percent approval rate despite
strong criticism of government performance
during the nation's earthquake emergency,
according to a new poll released Tuesday.
Opinions of the president's handling of the
Feb. 27 quake and the ensuing emergency that
followed had marked difference at opposite
ends of the income scale, according to
polling firm Adimark GFK.
It said that 68 percent of Chile's richest,
so called ABC1 citizens, had approved of her
management, down from 81 percent immediately
before the quake. However, in the C3 group,
one of the nation's poorer groups, her
approval rose to 88 percent compared with 84
percent.
The current government, to be succeeded by
President-elect Sebastian Pinera's
administration, has been under severe
criticism since last week over its response
to the devastating earthquake.
The Defense Ministry, which has the
responsibility for issuing tsunami warnings,
did not issue a warning on Feb. 27 and the
tsunami that followed hours after the quake
proved to be more deadly than the earth
tremor, Official figures show that 529
people have died in the earthquake, most of
them in tsunami-struck coastal regions.
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