Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Monday gave Britain’s queen and prime minister each a rock taken from the bottom of the collapsed San Jose Mine — a symbol of his effort to turn the disaster-turned-success story into an international image makeover.
The rescue of 33 men from the stricken mine, where they’d been trapped for more than two months, united Chileans and elicited a wave of sympathy around the world. Pinera’s European tour, which began over the weekend in London, may help brighten the image of a country many here still associate with the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Pinera told reporters that economic relations, clean energy and education were among the topics he discussed with British Prime Minister David Cameron. He also highlighted how Chile has changed and acquired more international respect since the mine collapse.
Photo: AFP
“Down the mine, but also up on the surface, the miners are not the same — they have come back to life,” he said. “And the Chilean people are not the same … I am sure that Chile now is a more united country, a stronger country, one prepared to face the new challenges, defeat poverty and underdevelopment.”
Pinera also committed his country to signing up to an international agreement on mine safety. He said Chile was determined to improve security in its extensive mining industry by ratifying a 1995 International Labour Organization convention on health and safety.
The agreement protects workers who draw attention to unsafe work practices from losing their jobs.
“Chile has ratified all the International Labour Organization conventions [until now], and this is one that we will ratify,” Pinera told BBC television.
“What we are doing is we are asking workers to speak out whenever there are problems of security, and we are also asking our entrepreneurs to be much more conscious, but that’s not enough — at the end of the day, the government has a responsibility, not only to set standards but also to make sure that those standards are enforced in the field, and we are working very hard on that,” he said.
Pinera said that he never lost faith that the miners were alive during the 17 days before they were located underground.
“I had a kind of inner voice that told me all the time they are alive,” he said.
He said “not only human effort” was responsible for their survival in the San Jose Mine.
“I won’t say it was a miracle, but I will say that we got some very important help,” he said.
Cameron’s office said the prime minister gave Pinera 33 bottles of Fuller’s London Pride ale — a traditional English real ale — one for each rescued miner and an early edition of Robinson Crusoe.
Pinera also met with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Monday and gave her another piece of rock from the mine.
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