Chilean miners freed in ‘miracle’ rescue

COPIAPO, Chile, (Reuters) – Fifteen of Chile’s 33  trapped miners were hoisted to safety in a cramped rescue  capsule today, punching the air and hugging their  families in a triumphant end to their two-month ordeal.
One by one, the miners climbed into the capsule, which is  barely wider than a man’s shoulders and equipped with a gas  mask and escape hatches for emergencies, and took a roughly  15-minute journey through 2,050 feet (625 meters) of rock to  freedom.
Scenes of jubilation erupted every time a miner arrived at  the surface of the San Jose gold and copper mine in Chile’s  northern Atacama desert. Rescuers said they hope to pull out  the remaining 18 miners before the end of the day.
While the first to be rescued were in good shape, some have  been struggling with illness and are more fragile, so medical  teams were on hand to treat them.
Mario Gomez, at 63 the oldest of the men and a miner for 50  years, suffers from silicosis and was breathing from an oxygen  mask as he reached the surface. He was helped out of the  capsule, and immediately dropped to his knees to pray with his  yellow hard hat still perched on his head.
Euphoric rescuers, relatives and friends broke into cheers  — and tears — as the miners emerged to breathe fresh air for  the first time since the mine collapsed on Aug 5.
“This is a miracle from God,” said Alberto Avalos, the  uncle of Florencio Avalos, a father of two who was the first to  emerge, shortly after midnight.
The miners have spent a record 69 days in the hot, humid  bowels of the mine and, for the first 17 days, they were all  believed to be dead.
Their story of survival and the extraordinary rescue  efforts have captured the world’s attention.
The operation was executed almost flawlessly through the  night and included dramatic live images of miners hugging  rescuers in their tunnel deep inside the mine. An estimated  1,500 journalists from around the world were at the mine to  report on the rescue.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera waited at the mouth of  the rescue shaft to greet and hug the men.
‘GOD AND THE DEVIL’
Mario Sepulveda, the second miner to escape, had everyone  laughing when his whoops of joy resounded on the surface even  before he arrived. He then stepped out of the capsule, opened  up a yellow bag, pulled out souvenir rocks from below and began  handing them out to the rescuers and even Pinera.
“I’m so happy!” Sepulveda yelled, grinning, punching his  fist in the air and hugging everyone in sight.
However, he also sounded a darkly serious note.
“I have been with God and I’ve been with the devil,” he  later said in an interview, calling for deep change to protect  workers’ rights.
Each of the miners wore dark glasses to protect their eyes  after spending so long in the dimly lit tunnel below.
Like wives on the surface who had their hair and nails done  for the occasion, the men looked groomed and clean-shaven.
Rescuers were finally able to deploy the capsule, dubbed  “Phoenix” after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes,  after drilling a narrow escape shaft down to the miners and  reinforcing it with metal casing to prevent rocks from falling  and blocking the exit.
Engineers said the final stage of the rescue still has its  risks but that the capsule was handling well in the shaft.
Each man’s journey to safety takes about 15 minutes. The  capsule travels at about 3 feet (1 meter) per second, or a  casual walking pace, and can speed to 10 feet (3 meters) per  second if the miner being carried gets into trouble.
The miners can communicate with rescue teams using an  intercom in the capsule. As they emerge, they are being put  under observation at a nearby hospital for two days.
UMBILICAL CORD
Rescuers originally found the men, miraculously all alive,  17 days after the mine’s collapse with a bore hole the width of  grapefruit. It then served as an umbilical cord used to pass  hydration gels, water and food, as well as letters from their  families and soccer videos to keep their spirits up.
Medics say some of the men are psychologically fragile and  may struggle with stress for a long time after their rescue.
Pinera ordered an overhaul of Chile’s mine safety  regulations after the accident. His popularity ratings have  surged and his government has won strong praise for its  handling of the crisis.
Thirty-two of the miners are Chilean but the other is from  neighboring Bolivia and the rescue has even helped improve ties  between the two countries, locked in a bitter dispute over  access to the Pacific for more than a century.
Bolivian President Evo Morales was at the mine to welcome  the Bolivian miner, Carlos Mamani, as he was lifted to safety  today and he then thanked Pinera and his government for  the rescue work.
“I and the Bolivian people will never forget this great  effort,” Morales said as he appeared with Pinera at a news  conference, adding that the rescue will create greater  confidence between the two countries.
The mining industry has played a central and often tragic  role in Latin American history, starting with the hunger for  gold and silver that drove the Spanish conquest and led to the  enslavement of indigenous peoples.
For centuries, conditions in Latin American mines were  miserable but they have improved dramatically in recent decades  and the industry has over the last 10 years helped fuel a boom  in some of the region’s economies, including Chile.