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.

After 68 days of shared fears and jitters – all of it under the close scrutiny of dozens of reporters that have now grown to a battalion – the early fellowship has frayed. Some relationships, once at least cordial, are as hostile as the desolate sands of the surrounding Acatama desert.

Relatives privately shared stories of the divisiveness with a reporter who spent the past month at the camp.

The feuds and jealousies within families centred on such matters as who got to take part in weekend video conferences with the miners, who received letters and why – or even who should speak to the media and how much they should be revealing about a family’s interior life.

Some relatives complained about distant kin seeking the international media limelight, giving interviews about trapped miners they barely know.

Alberto Iturra, the chief of the psychology team advising the trapped men, decided that after each miner emerges from the escape capsule to daylight the rescued man will meet with between one and three people whom the miner has personally designated.

Then there is the question of money.

It has already strained relations between families as some seem to be getting more than others, including from some news media, who outnumber the miners’ relations several fold.

Cognisant of the emotional toll, Iturra recommended that the relatives leave the mine, go home and get some rest.

“I explained to the families that the only way one can receive someone is to first be home to open the door,” Iturra said.

Officials drew up a secret list of which miners should come out first, but the order could change after paramedics and a mining expert first descend in the capsule to evaluate the men and oversee the journey upward.

First out will be the four miners fittest of frame and mind, health minister Jaime Manalich said.

Should glitches occur, these men will be best prepared to ride them out and tell their comrades what to expect.

Next will be 10 who are weakest or ill. One miner suffers from hypertension. Another is a diabetic, and others have dental and respiratory infections or skin lesions from the mine’s oppressive humidity.

The last out was expected to be Luiz Urzua, who was shift chief when the men became entombed.

Media were expected to be blocked by a screen from viewing the miners when they reach the surface. A media platform has been set up more than 300 feet (90 meters) away from the mouth of the hole.

All the miners will be kept for 48 hours of observation at hospital, to begin when the last one exits the escape shaft.