First UK TV interview with Chile miner rescuer
Exclusive: The man who led the rescue mission that saved 33 trapped Chilean miners tells Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller his wife wanted to kill him when he got home.
Manuel Gonzalez – the first man down into the chamber when the rescue operation began – had not told his family about his central role.
“After I came out, I talked to my wife and she was crying her eyes out,” he told Channel 4 News. “She was very emotional and all she really wanted to do was kill me.”
Gonzales said that when he reached the bottom of the shaft he told the trapped miners that there were 17 of his partners up above – “and 17 million fellow Chileans watching on TV.”
“What really struck me was the temperature,” he said. “It was between 35 and 40 degrees and 100 per cent humidity. I was also struck by what they were wearing. They were wearing their underwear because it was so hot.”
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He had promised them there would be no technical problems and that they would be back with their families in a matter of minutes.
“Immediately I felt their warmth towards me. I was the first they had seen in many weeks and I felt the human warmth when they hugged me,” he said.
Gonzalez was also the last man out of the mine, staying behind for 26 minutes after the last miner was evacuated.
When he reached the surface he joked to Chile’s President that he had forgotten to turn out the light. But he added that too many miners were working in inhumane conditions and that profit should not come before human life.
Three of the miners have already been released from hospital and another ten are due for release in the next 24 hours.
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