El gran rescate (the grand rescue) of the trapped miners a success!

As we write this (2342H Manila time, 13 October, Wednesday), 16 of the 33 trapped miners have been brought back to the surface from their refuge 700 meters below the earth.

The escape capsule called Phoenix first went down at 23:36PM (Chile, 12 October) and came up with the first survivor at 00:12AM (Chile, 13 October), the stoutest of them, Florencio Avalos.  The second, Mario Sepulveda had a bagful of rocks to distribute to the rescuers as souvenirs, and he went around to cheer the welcoming crowd.  Carlos Mamani, a Bolivian and the only foreigner among the miners, was the fourth.

On hand to welcome them back together with tearful yet joyful families was President Sebastian Pinera himself.

Luis Urzua, the leader of the 33 miners, will be the last to go up; he was quoted as saying the captain is the last to abandon ship.

11October top story on the last 3 to be raised.

 For an appreciation of how the grand rescue was mounted using a new technology, El Mercurio printed out graphic illustrations of the entire story in two-page features below, topmost on 13 October and the bottom on 10 October. These are easy to follow (and understand) even if one does not know Spanish.

13 October spreads.

10 October spreads.