Cannibalism fear emerges in first Chile miner interviews

At least 10 more Chilean miners should return home on Friday, officials said, as first interviews described how the trapped men had waited for death haunted by the specter of cannibalism.

“We think no fewer than 10 miners will be released on Friday,” said Jorge Montes, deputy director of the hospital where the 33 survivors were taken for exhaustive medical check-ups following their dramatic rescue on Wednesday.

Champagne flowed late Thursday as the first three returned home, facing a surreal readjustment to their sudden fame as they pondered tempting offers of holidays and cash.

They left hospital under high security in a government vehicle that was chased by a mob of photographers as it took them to homes in one of the most downtrodden and violent parts of Copiapo.

The gritty mining town erupted into wild celebration as neighbours and relatives popped champagne corks and threw confetti to welcome back Juan Illanes, the one Bolivian, Carlos Mamani, and Edison Pena.

As he worked his way through the crowd at the hospital entrance, Pena, a self-confessed Elvis fan who ran miles every day to keep fit down the mine said: “We are not pop stars or anything, we’re just ordinary people.” But for these tough men, a new world of opportunity awaits and a chance to turn their fear and despair into profit, perhaps even riches beyond their wildest dreams if book deals and Hollywood film rights come.

Some could take up immediate offers to holiday in Greece or visit top European football clubs. Pena has been invited to tour Elvis’s Graceland home, but Illanes had another destination in mind.

“I want to achieve my dream of going to Miami,” the 52-year-old mechanic and former soldier told AFP, before giving brief insights into his experience trapped in the bowels of the dark, dank San Jose mine.

“The confinement was terrible,” he said. “The first 17 days were a nightmare. Then everything changed. But the hardest thing was to be down there. Buried for two months.”

The men were trapped on August 5 by a huge rock collapse at the mine in northern Chile’s remote Atacama desert and they had been almost given up for dead before a probe sent down through a narrow bore hole struck lucky on August 22.

In that agonizing interim, when each man had to make do with a tiny spoonful of tinned tuna or salmon each day, they faced the mounting terror they would die in the mine.

“We were waiting for death,” miner Richard Villarroel said as he was interviewed by Britain’s Guardian newspaper, The Washington Post and local Chilean media.

“We were wasting away. We were so skinny. I lost 26 pounds. I was afraid of not meeting my baby, who is on the way. That was what I was most waiting for.”

Their discovery by the drill probe and the start of the rescue effort meant the men could finally joke about some of their darkest fears, including cannibalism, Villaroel said.

“Once (help came) it became a topic of joking, but only once it was over, once they found us.”

Anonymous before, the miners are now household names in Chile and media stars around the world, flooded with requests for interviews.

A sign of the special bond that sustained them through their terrible entrapment, relatives say the men want to pool the proceeds so any treasure that comes their way can be shared out equally.

The half-sister of one miner, Claudio Yanez, said they had decided to seek 20 million pesos (around 40,000 dollars) per interview.

One of the first stops for many of the men after they leave hospital could be the mine itself as relatives are planning a special event on Sunday at the tent city, dubbed Camp Hope, where they had pined for their loved ones.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has suggested turning the camp into a memorial or museum to honour the miners.

Potential souvenirs abound: from the Phoenix 2 rescue capsule, whose journeys up and down the mine transfixed the world, to the Oakley sunglasses the men wore to protect their vulnerable eyes.Doctors say most of the 33 survivors are in great shape, but three had dental surgery under general anesthesia, two have the lung disease silicosis and one is being treated for pneumonia.

Psychologists, though, have warned that their nightmarish experiences could haunt them for years to come and many might struggle to settle back in to life above ground. - (AFP)