Tensions rise as nerves get better of relatives

WHILE the dusty curve fronting the gold and copper mine where 33 miners have been trapped for two months may be called Camp Hope, it also has been a bevy of intrigue, envy and rivalries that have divided the miners’ relatives holding vigil here – just as their shared plight unites them.

Overground, the mood was less of merrymaking than of exhaustion and frazzled nerves.

“Here the tension is higher than down below. Down there they are calm,” said Veronica Ticona, sister of 29-year-old Ariel Ticona, a trapped machine operator.