(updates with quotes from president and defense minister)
SANTIAGO -(Dow Jones)- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday she'll send a special envoy and humanitarian assistance to Haiti following the earthquake that shook the Caribbean nation.
Chile has a group of 505 military personnel in Haiti as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force there.
Bachelet tapped Juan Gabriel Valdes, a former Chilean foreign affairs minister who headed the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, between 2004 and 2006, as her envoy.
"He has the necessary experience and the contacts to expedite assistance there," Bachelet said.
The government will send military airplanes with medical assistance, and a Navy vessel is also bound for Haiti, according to officials.
Two Chileans, one of them a member of MINUSTAH and the other the wife of a general deployed in Haiti, have been reported missing following the quake and the government is concerned about their whereabouts, Defense Minister Francisco Vidal said.
"Our troops haven't had any physical problems expect one soldier who sprained his elbow, but what's causing us anxiety, and we express our solidarity, are the missing women," he said.
Chilean troops in Haiti have been providing assistance since the quake hit Tuesday evening.
"Chilean forces immediately deployed their human and physical resources to reinforce the initial U.N. assistance tasks, through Air Force helicopter flights over the affected areas to determine the magnitude of the damages," the head of the Chilean Armed Forces staff said in a statement.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones Newswires
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