up and then reunite them with their families. President Ricardo Lagos declared three days of national mourning and was scheduled to travel to Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon. Cheyre, who went partway up the mountain some 360 miles (600 km) southeast of Santiago to bring down the first body, blamed the tragedy on officers who ordered hundreds of soldiers on an annual mountain drill to leave shelter during the storm. "There was negligence and imprudence," Cheyre told reporters. He said the army has performed the exercise at this time of year for decades and never been hit by a big storm. Lagos told a news conference on Friday night: "All Chileans in this moment of pain want the families, fathers, mothers and brothers to feel we are giving them comfort, to feel the human warmth of a country living a tragedy." Defense Minister Jaime Ravinet said only one company in the regiment had enough protective gear for a storm. Families of the missing and local media questioned whether the army had heeded weather reports before the exercise at the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere winter.
