Rich Chileans Scolded For Easter Bugouts To Coastal Compounds

While Chilean Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel told citizens on Thursday of their “moral duty” to stay home during the Easter holiday, wealthy residents of Santiago reportedly traveled via private plane and helicopter to their costal enclaves, according to SCMP.

The country currently has over 6,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus – one of the highest in Latin America. Some of the hardest-hit regions in the country are in high-end neighborhoods in the capital of Santiago – a city of 6 million at the foot of the Andes Mountains, according to the report.

Quarantine measures in many of those normally bustling communities require residents to shelter in place.

Chilean health officials said earlier this week they planned to cordon off the city, setting up road checkpoints manned by police and military, to prevent city dwellers from fleeing to second homes in rural areas at the risk of spreading the virus. –SCMP

Despite the lockdown, Santiago Mayor Felipe Guevara told state television “that people are using their own or leased helicopter or aircraft to leave the metropolitan region for their second home.”

He added that aviation officials would now ask ‘tough questions’ of any pilot trying to leave the city.

“What is going to be tested this weekend is how responsible, how supportive, we are as Chileans,” said Interior Minister Blumel in a televised statement ahead of the holiday.