2023-09-06 16:45:00
just over 13 years since The 33 Chilean miners will be rescued alive on that August 22, 2010, after 68 days of being trapped in the San José mine, 720 meters deepit was resolved that the Chilean State must pay almost a million and a half dollars to 31 of the 33 miners.
It is that the Supreme Court rejected the appeal that the State Defense Council (CDE) had presented, while the affected miners claimed that there was a lack of service from the state institutions in charge of the inspection of the country’s deposits, the Servicio National Department of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin), the Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Health and the Directorate of Labor.
This way, each miner who sued the Chilean state will receive a sum close to 46 thousand dollars which, according to the testimony of the protagonists, will seek to close the chapter on an accident that traveled the world for weeks and luckily ended without fatalities.
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Even, according to the newspaper The Mercurymany of the miners had already lost hope that the State would pay them for their claim, and many said that silver was a secondary issue for them, since they wanted the failure of public bodies to be recognized.
What the miners said about the trial of the State of Chile
For example, in that local media, the case of Omar Reygadas is detailed, who together with former soccer player Franklin Lobos, who was also trapped in the San José mine, today works in a company that is dedicated to vehicle rental. “I had already given that to God,” he said when asked about the compensation.
Another case is that of Johnny Barrios, affected by silicosis, as a result of all the time in which he worked in mining and exposure to dustwho today works as a driver of heavy machinery in the municipality of Copiapó, confesses that with the money he intends to renew his truck and leave the rest for family projects.
The chronology of the history of the 33 Atacama miners
There is also José Ojeda, the man who wrote the famous message “The 33 of us are fine at the shelter”, 12 days after the accident. Ojeda said that He has diabetes, more heart problems and Alzheimer’sand specified that “in 2018 they were going to pay us 80 million pesos (93 thousand dollars) and the lawyers (from the CDE) appealed the first instance ruling and there they lowered us. Justice was not done here, it was done only to close the case. case”.
For their part, Raúl Bustos and Juan Illanes are the two miners who did not join the lawsuit. Some time ago, Illanes explained that in his opinion Those who had to compensate the miners were the owners of the mining company, and not the State. Bustos, meanwhile, had said that he had already turned the page. “I’m at another stop,” he said.
Luis Urzúa, who was the shift manager at the time of the accident, today is dedicated to giving lectures on occupational safety. For him, the delivery of compensation means the closure of a cycle. “It is setting a precedent for mining in Chile. For me the money was not so important, but that this cycle had to be closed“, he claimed.
On August 22, 2010, the 33 miners were found alive after the collapse in Chile
According to the lawyer Jorge Ríos, who represents the miners who sued the Chilean state, the payment of these amounts should not extend beyond two to four months.
The accident at the San José mine, currently closed, and located near Copiapó, some 800 kilometers north of Santiago, occurred on August 5, 2010, when a rock the size of a building detached, blocking the entry of leaf. The miners had to survive underground until October 13 of that year, when they were rescued, one by one, through the famous Phoenix capsule.
JD / CP
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