Chile miners: rescue under way to save trapped men

As I write, the clock is ticking down to the start of Operation San Lorenzo – named after the patron saint of miners. Three hours to go before rescue capsule Phoenix One makes is scheduled to make its first ascent with a miner aboard. A member of the Chilean Special Forces – who’s also a paramedic – will have gone down two hours earlier to assess the men.

The first man up, as we predicted yesterday, will be Florencio Avalos, one of two brothers, and the cameraman who took all the video pictures of the miners that have been beamed around the world in recent weeks. He is reckoned to be among the very toughest, fittest and most experienced of the 33.

The atmosphere at Campamento Esperanzo is now at fever pitch – not least among the hundreds of journalists who have descended on Camp Hope, where the now very nervous but very excited relatives of the trapped men have been living for the past ten weeks.

President Sebastian Pinero of Chile and President Evo Morales of Bolivia have just arrived at the San Jose Mine, to witness what will be one of the most powerfully emotional moments in Chilean history. The entire nation is on tenterhooks.

Carlos Solis Mamani, the Bolivian miner, is number four on the list to be extracted. Yesterday we were told that there was pressure to bring him out among the first few because of the presence of the Bolivian president. But there were concerns that if he were the first to emerge, Bolivians might think he’d been used as a guinea pig.

Mario Gomez, who at 63, is the oldest of the miners, will be number nine. He suffers from silicosis, a lung condition, and has been given bronchial dilators to assist him in the ascent. Other miners with health concerns include Alex Vega, number 10 on the list, is being asked to do breathing exercises as doctors monitoring him above say he is not breathing well.

Osman Araya, who will be the sixth to emerge, has a serious dental problem and has been fed only warm, pureed food. He is understood to be in a lot of pain.

Channel 4 News has learned from a source in the Rescue Team at the Plan B site that the men below are extremely stressed. Several are taking sleeping pills, but few have slept much in recent nights.

The number of smokers among the group has increased from 10 to 20 inside a week, and paramedics are stuffing the “paloma” – or pigeons – supply containers which are sent down narrow communications tubes with packs of Belmont and Viceroy cigarettes.

Despite the high levels of anxiety and other physical and mental health concerns, the Chief Medic in the Rescue Team, Dr Jean Romagnoli, says he’s satisfied that they’re all fit enough to be extracted. He told them by video link on Tuesday: “You’re all fine for the final ascent. It’s time for us to start lighting the barbeques!”

The men appear to be eating well. On Tuesday, the palomas were filled with steak and potatoes and green beans for their lunch. Dinner on Tuesday evening will be chicken with dried plums, onions, carrots and rice. But those who’ll be the first to go up will be required to fast for several hours before they make the ascent.

There have been frenetic, almost constant communications with the men below, with them requesting everything from electrical extension flexes to thermos flasks of tea. They in turn are being asked for autographs and the palomas have taken a steady stream of Chilean flags, which return from below signed by all the miners, along with drawings and the phrase “We will never abandon you.”

Covering the Chile miner rescue
Click here for Channel 4 News cameraman Dai Baker’s photographs of life in Camp Hope

Many of the miners, who have communicated with interlocutors on the surface by video telephone for the past two months, have developed intense relationships with those they’ve been in contact with. According to our source inside Plan B, one miner even attempted to seduce his interlocutor, a nurse.

“He was asking to go out with me!” she told our source. “Then he started talking about how he likes to make love! I began to blush!” She says the miner – allegedly a married man – still has a crush on her.

Some of the miners will have to explain themselves to their wives when they come up, as several turned out to have skeletons in the closet. Last month, when the men were asked to designate who should receive the US$1,600 monthly salary, disputes broke out as previously unknown mistresses emerged.

Today, however, all that is temporarily forgotten – if not forgiven – as the delicate rescue operation gets underway. In defiance of the Rescue Team above, the 33 miners are continuing to insist that none of them should leave the site until all of them are out.

The plan had been to ferry them to hospital in the city of Copiapo, in batches of four. But now the miners – among whom there had been reported rifts in early days – are putting on a show of unity and comradeship.

One said to Dr Romagnoli, who’d devised the plan to transport them to hospital: “You know how we are, Doctor. We are tough. We are miners.”

Official order of exit for miners
Channel 4 News has exclusively obtained this list, which is the order miners will be extracted out of the mine over the next three days.

The list is subject to change once the two paramedics who will descend into the chamber have themselves assessed the men. The list has been drawn up on the basis of detailed monitoring of physical fitness levels – heart rates, blood pressure and other vital signs – as well as mental condition, age and experience.

1 Avalos Silva, Florencio
2 Sepulveda Espinace, Mario
3 Illanes Palma, Juan
4 Mamani Solis, Carlos
5 Sanchez Laguez, Jimmy
6 Araya Araya, Osman
7 Ojeda Vidal, José
8 Yañez Lagos, Claudio
9 Gomez Heredia, Mario
10 Vega Salazar, Alex
11 Galleguillos Orellana, Jorge
12 Peña Villarroel, Edison
13 Barrios Contreras, Carlos
14 Zamora Bugueño, Victor
15 Segovia Rojas, Victor
16 Herrera Campos, Daniel
17 Reygadas Rojas, Omar
18 Rojas Carrizo, Esteban
19 Rojas Villacorta, Pablo
20 Segovia Rojo, Darío
21 Barrios Rojas, Yonny
22 Avalos Acuña, Samuel
23 Bugueño Alfaro, Carlos
24 Henriquez Gonzalez, José
25 Avalos Silva, Renán
26 Acuña Cortés, Claudio
27 Lobos Ramirez, Franklin
28 Villarroel Godoy, Richard
29 Aguilar Gaete Juan, Carlos
30 Bustos Ibañez, Raul
31 Cortez Contreras, Pedro
32 Ticona Yañez, Ariel
33 Urzúa Iribarren, Luis