The commander of Chile's armed forces, Ricardo Ortega, has criticized the government's slow reaction to the the earthquake that struck the country in the early hours of February 27, local paper El Mercurio reported.

"Two hours after the earthquake we had the planes ready to go wherever we were told, but to take off, we needed someone to tell us 'go there and with this'," Ortega said.
 

Once President Michelle Bachelet declared a national catastrophe at 3pm on Sunday (Feb 28), the armed forces took 24 hours to send almost 8,000 men to regions VII and VIII. "If it had been done [declaring a state of catastrophe] at midday on Saturday we would have responded with the same speed," Ortega said.
 
A few hours after the earthquake, there were 11 planes and 7 helicopters ready to take off.
 
In the opinion of the army, if the government had acted faster, the looting that took place on Saturday and Sunday could have been avoided, the report said.