Dozens of Chilean Conscripts 'Left to Die' in the Snow by Their Officers

Dozens of Chilean conscripts 'left to die in the snow by their officers'
By Federico Quilodran in Los Angeles, Chile

22 May 2005

Furious relatives of soldiers among the 45 feared frozen to death in the Chilean Andes raged at military officers yesterday for leaving dozens of ill-equipped teenage recruits out in a blizzard.

While rescuers looked for 29 still missing, angry families identified 16 bodies recovered on the slopes of the Antuco volcano near the border with Argentina and taken to the army base in Los Angeles in southern Chile.

"My son and his companions were abandoned by the officers. They were coming down together in a group and people were falling. The officer just let 28 kids fall and went on to the shelter," said Gloria Bastias, whose son Jonathan Bustos died in the tragedy on Wednesday.

The soldiers were on a training march when the area was hit by the worst snowstorm in decades. As many as 45 soldiers - all conscripts, with the exception of one officer - were believed to have died. The weather cleared sufficiently on Friday for rescue patrols to search for the missing, but not for helicopters to join them.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=640377

When you are out in the wilderness and the weather turns deadly, there might have been no other course of action open!

I'm told by sources that Chilean's make up a large part of Blackwater's supposed Security services in Iraq. They'll obviously have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe Colombian's or El Salvadorian's???