Trapped miners in Chile request 'a little glass of wine'

Complex drilling has begun on a tunnel to rescue 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground in a Chilean desert, a process that could take three to four months despite Chile's efforts to speed up the process. The miners are already the longest-trapped in history. A landslide cut them off from the surface on Aug. 5 at the San Jose copper and gold mine in the Atacama region.

In a telephone conversation last week with President Sebastian Pinera, the miners reportedly asked for "a little glass of wine" to ease the wait and to celebrate Chile's bicentennial of independence, observed Sept. 18. "For the moment, there will be no alcohol. Nor tobacco, although almost all of them have asked for some," writes a Chile correspondent for Spain's El Pais (link in Spanish).

"All we can do is give them Vitamin B and folic acid," a government official told the paper.

The requests raise the issue of how to keep the miners psychologically sound as they prepare for a long wait. The government said five of the miners were suffering from depression and were receiving counseling.

The private company that owns the mine, San Esteban, has said it now has no money to pay the miners' wages and is not participating in the rescue effort, which is being headed by Chile's state-owned mining company. In 2007 the mine's executives were charged with involuntary manslaughter for an accident that killed one worker.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Video still of miners trapped in Chile. Credit: Reuters via El Pais

Comments

[ChevyD 39]

What a bunch of bull, that damn company should be paying these damn guys and should be helping with the rescue effort!! Shows how much they are so damn selfish and all about money! What a bunch of a$$ holes.

[cabeachguy]

Wait a minute....These guys are running a GOLD mine and now they don't have enough money to pay the wages of these miners?

If I was the government I'd nationalize or lay eminent domain to that mine right away and sell it to a more responsible company that can afford the float on the wages knowing the backside is to own a producing gold mine down the road.

[observer]

the mine company is not going to pay them after this???????????
this world has gone insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

This story is a trip! But I'm glad the Chilean government is stepping up to rescue these guys.

[Geoff Trapp]

"The private company that owns the mine, San Esteban, has said it now has no money to pay the miners' wages and is not participating in the rescue effort, which is being headed by Chile's state-owned mining company. In 2007 the mine's executives were charged with involuntary manslaughter for an accident that killed one worker."

After that prior 2007 fatality, the mine owners were ordered to install an escape ladder system ... which they failed to do ... which is why these men are now trapped.

Injustice is the same all over the world:

The rich care only about amassing as much wealth as they can, and take advantage of the poor at every occasion.

When disaster strikes, the rich never care about the poor. Only the government and taxpayers come to pick up the pieces ... IF the rich haven't already destroyed the government.

Why would anyone other than rich millionaires and billionaires ever vote for the Republicans?