Rivalries Simmer Among Miners’ Families

Families of the Chilean miners trapped underground since early August have been staying at “Camp Hope,” a tent city of desperate loved ones, for 68 days, and nerves have begun to fray as the men’s rescue nears. "Here the tension is higher than down below. Down there they are calm," a trapped miner’s sister said. Some miners’ relatives are openly hostile toward each other, holding on to grudges fueled by jealousy over who got more letters, more time on videoconferences, more time with reporters, more information to reveal. Others complain of far-flung relatives reveling in the international media attention as well as donated gifts. The psychology team working on the rescue has ruled that when each miner is finally brought to the surface, he can meet with one to three people of his choosing. The first miner will likely be pulled out around dawn on Wednesday, though some have said extractions will begin a few hours earlier. Officials have created a secret list of which miners will be the first to take the 20-minute trip to the surface, but they plan on initially pulling out the four healthiest guys, so they can tell the others what to expect, then the 10 sickest, and last will be the shift chief.