YouTube - CNN - Secuestro y rescate del presidente Rafael Correa 30/09/2010

YouTube, 30/09/2010

Trapped Chilean Miners Forge Refuge - by Alexei Barrionuevo - The New York Times

NYTimes, by Alexei Barrionuevo, Mina San José, 31/08/2010, excerpt/extracto.-

Mario Gómez is all too familiar with the hardships of prolonged confinement. While still in his 30s, his family said, he survived as a stowaway on a ship for 11 days, living below deck on little more than bits of chocolate and drops of water collected in a shoe — an ordeal so trying it brought him closer to God.

Now, at 62 years old, Mr. Gómez is the oldest of the 33 miners trapped nearly half a mile underground here and has become the spiritual guide to his men, government officials said. He has organized a small subterranean chapel and is serving as unofficial aide to the psychologists working on the surface to cope with the miners’ sadness and fear.

Miners are a hardened breed. Mr. Gómez and the two other men leading the group below are no exception. They come from traditional mining families and together have more than 90 years of experience working underground.

Chile - Mina San José - entrevista a Ministro de Minería Laurence Golborne - Caracol (Colombia)

Caracol, Bogotá, 30/08/2010.-
"Los mineros están sólidos emocional y psicológicamente", ministro de Minería, Chile

Video - Families of Chilean Miners Wait and Pray - AP

Relatives of the 33 trapped miners continued to camp outside the entrance to the San Jose mine Saturday. Few rescues have taken more than two weeks, but Chilean officials have said that his rescue operation may take until Christmas. (Aug. 28)

CBS - The Week that Was - Chilean Miners - former astronaut Jerry Linenger

CBS, 28/08/2010.-

• The Week that Was: Chilean Miners, CBS, 28/08/2010
Former astronaut Jerry Linenger was stranded for three months aboard the Russian MIR space station. He gives his analysis to Rebecca Jarvis on the 33 trapped Chilean miners who are not expected to be released for at least four months.

'Plan B' could mean speedier rescue of Chilean miners - from Karl Penhaul - correspondent - CNN

CNN, from Karl Penhaul, CNN correspondent, Copiapó, 28/08/2010, 17:18 GMT, excerpt/extracto.-

Mining engineers in Chile say they have come up with a "Plan B" that could halve the time it will take to rescue the 33 miners trapped inside a mine since August 5.

Walter Herrera, quality control and risk manager for Chilean mining company GeoTech, said his company was bringing a specialized device -- a Scram T-130 drill, typically used for boring water holes -- to the San Jose mine. He told CNN Saturday that the drill could be on site and working within five to six days.

He said the plan hinges on using one of the three bore holes, measuring four-inches each in diameter, that has already been drilled and is being used to pass the miners supplies. The drill would use that bore hole as a pilot and simply widen the diameter to about 28 inches.

Herrera said the plan his company has drawn up indicates that workers would have to drill 624 meters (2,047 feet) to reach the miners.

"I don't want to put a time frame on this," he said. "We think it could be quicker than the other plan. In ideal conditions, this could take around two months."

Chilean miners stuck in a hot, damp, cramped dungeon - CNN International (videos)

CNN International, by Karl Penhaul, 27/08/2010, excerpt/extracto.-

The 33 men trapped in a mine 2,300 feet below the surface in northern Chile face a physical, social, psychological and sanitary ordeal as they await a rescue that could take four months.

The miners are sharing a space the size of a small U.S. apartment. They don't have a toilet, and it's damp and hot with little air circulation. They won't see the light of the sun until sometime in November or December.

Doctors have given the men advice about how to keep their limited living space clean: Portions of a 131-foot-long (40-meter) shaft are being used as a latrine. The shaft is connected to the main 538-square-foot (50-square-meter) cabin, which is being used for sleeping, washing and praying.

Video Messages From Trapped Chilean Miners - NYTimes.com

the Ledge - NYTimes.com, by Alexis Barrionuevo and Robert Mackey, 27/08/2010 09:39 AM.-

Relatives of 33 miners trapped in a collapsed mine shaft far below in Chile’s Atacama Desert have been shown new video of the men in which they send greetings to the surface, show the space they are confined in and sing the Chilean national anthem.

The miners, who have been trapped for three weeks almost half a mile underground, appear in good spirits and reasonably good health in the new video images of them in their subterranean home.

The video, shown to family members late Thursday night and on Chilean national television, was recorded by a minicamera sent by the government in the plastic tubes being used to deliver food and other items through a hole about four inches in diameter.

A Relieved Chile Braces for a Long Mine Rescue - Simon Romero - The New York Times

NYTimes, by Simon Romero, San José Mine, Chile, 24/08/2010, excerpt/extracto.-

Through a skinny borehole from the surface, the 33 miners trapped more than 2,000 feet below the parched earth here have gotten a gel-like substance to keep them alive, tiny lights to illuminate the darkness and encouraging notes from their families waiting above.

What they have not gotten is the difficult news: that it could take more than three months to pull them to the surface. No one has told them, for fear of breaking their spirit.

“Psychologically, we have to try to keep them on the right track,” said Laurence Golborne, Chile’s mining minister. “They are miners, so they understand the situation they are living. They understand that we have to go through 700 meters of solid rock to rescue them.” But even so, he added, “we don’t want them to suffer ups and downs.”

For many of the families now camping in a makeshift tent city outside the mine, a place bursting with Chilean flags and religious artifacts, it was nothing short of a miracle when President Sebastián Piñera presented a handwritten note from the miners on national television on Sunday, assuring Chile that all of the miners had somehow survived their feared entombment after a cave-in on Aug. 5.

• Hazards of long confinement, The New York Times, 24/08/2010

Abren perforaciones en mina en EEUU; no hay señales de vida - AP

News from The Associated Press, 07/04/2010 12:00 EDT, MONTCOAL, Virginia Occidental, EE.UU., extracto.-


Los equipos de rescate realizaron el miércoles perforaciones en una mina de carbón donde murieron 25 personas en una explosión, para desalojar gases venenosos e ingresar en busca de posibles sobrevivientes.


Los equipos habían abierto una perforación y necesitaban dos más para penetrar en la mina Upper Big Branch en busca de cuatro personas aún desaparecidas en el mayor desastre minero en Estados Unidos en más de 20 años.


'Los equipos de rescate están preparados', dijo el gobernador Joe Manchin en conferencia de prensa por la mañana. 'Están equipados, listos para partir'.


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