COPIAPO—The miners who were trapped underground for 69 days led Chile Friday in marking the first anniversary of the start of their remarkable ordeal, which has scarred many of them forever.
Friday’s religious ceremony in northern Chile was a moving reunion for the men who endured a survival story that began on August 5, 2010, when a cave-in trapped 33 miners deep inside the San Jose mine in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert.
For the next two months the world’s attention was riveted on them and their battle to survive against the odds, until their rescue on October 14, 2010 when they were hauled one-by-one back to the surface in a complex operation.
The anniversary ceremony, which was attended by 27 of the 33 miners, was organized by the men as a gesture of gratitude for their successful rescue, and many of the workers who saved the miners were in attendance.
“We are the survivors of a catastrophe. Thanks to their efforts, there are not 33 crosses planted in the desert today,” Luis Urzua, who was the shift leader of the miners and who organized the event, said Friday.
All 33 trapped miners were brought to safety in a feat of engineering 69 days after the mine shaft caved in.
“Thanks for not forgetting, not losing hope, for fighting to get us back to our families, for giving us the encouragement to hang on. Because of you we can say that ‘All 33 of us are well inside the shelter,'” the miners wrote on a photograph distributed at the ceremony, referencing a now-famous message sent while they were trapped underground.
President Sebastian Pinera as well as many of those involved in the rescue attended the ceremony. Even Rolly the clown, a former miner who entertained the children and grandchildren of the miners while their relatives kept up a long vigil outside the mine, was in attendance on Friday.
The country’s Minister of Public Works, Laurence Golborne, who was new to office at the time of the crisis, spearheaded efforts to save the miners in his then-post as Minister of Mining.
Pinera and Golborne greeted each miner and his family individually on Friday, as he doled out hugs and kisses during the ceremony.
“I’ve very excited and very happy to be reunited with so many people we worked with so long and who suffered so much, we had sorrow and then we had great joy,” Golborne said.
“It’s nice to be back and remember a moment that was so beautiful and so tragic at the same time, but that ended so well,” Golborne added.
Four of the miners could not attend due to flight connection problems from the United States, and two others did not wish to attend.
All the miners who were at the ceremony were accompanied by their families.
Although most of the men were wearing suits and ties, only a few of them said they were having a good year after their ordeal ended last October.
Former miners Dario Segovia and Osman Araya developed a shared business where they sell fruit and vegetables in a market.
Luis Urzua, the last man pulled out of the mine, dedicates his time to giving public lectures. He is also the spokesman for the group and is coordinating a film project to produce a film about their story.
But most of the men spoke of the extreme hardships they had faced since the cave-in last August.
Seven miners remain on medical leave and most have no steady work.
Jimmy Sanchez said he was better off inside the mine, and now he is overwhelmed by memories of long days of confinement.
As the author of the famous message, “All 33 of us in the shelter are well,” Jose Ojeda is unemployed but says that after psychological treatment he is slowly starting to resume mining work.
It was Ojeda’s message, which was sent to the surface through a drill on August 22, that first informed the world the tiners were still alive.
The written message, which Pinera had kept since the rescue, was returned to Ojeda on Friday at the close of the ceremony.
Ojeda said he will donate the message to the Regional Museum of Atacama, the area where the mine catastrophe occurred.
Also in northern Chile on Friday, a 14-day long strike at the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, ended when workers and owners struck a deal on salaries as well as bonuses for exceptional 2010 production.