Chile president vows tougher rules

People celebrate the end of the rescue operation to free 33 trapped miners from the San Jose mine in Chile (AP)
12 April 2012

Chile's 33 rescued miners were reported in good health as they met the country's president who pledged tougher safety laws.

President Sebastian Pinera posed with the miners, most of whom were wearing bathrobes and slippers, for a group photo in the hospital where they are being assessed,

Relatives were organising welcome-home parties and trying to hold off an onslaught of demands by those seeking to share in the glory of the amazing rescue that entranced people around the world and set off horn-blowing celebrations across the South American nation.

Mr Pinera celebrated the rescue as an achievement that will bring Chile a new level of respect around the world. The miners and the country will never be the same, Mr Pinera said.

"They have experienced a new life, a rebirth," he said, and so has Chile: "We aren't the same that we were before the collapse on August 5. Today Chile is a country much more unified, stronger and much more respected and loved in the entire world."

The billionaire businessman-turned-politician also promised "radical" changes and tougher safety laws to improve how businesses treat their workers.

"Never again in our country will we permit people to work in conditions so unsafe and inhuman as they worked in the San Jose Mine, and in many other places in our country," said Pinera, who took office in March as Chile's first elected right-wing president in a half-century.

None of the miners are suffering from shock despite their harrowing entrapment, a reflection of the care and feeding sent through a narrow borehole by a team of hundreds during their 69 days trapped underground. Even a team of psychologists helped keep them sane. "All of them have been subjected to high levels of stress and most of them have tolerated it in a truly exceptional way," said Dr. Jorge Montes, deputy director of the Copiapo Regional Hospital. "We don't see any problems of a psychological or a medical nature."

"We were completely surprised," added Health Minister Jaime Manalich. "We called this a real miracle, because any effort we could have made doesn't explain the health condition these people have today."

After weeks of fear, desperation and finally hope, the miners were pulled out one by one in a capsule that carried them through a narrow tube of solid rock - a dizzying 23-hour marathon of rescues. The men, their eyes hidden behind sunglasses to protect from the sun and glare of lights, emerged to tears and embraces from relatives, and cheers and patriotic chants, as tens of millions of people watched on television around the world. All of them remain tense and spent a restless first night in the hospital, the doctors said.

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