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Thirty-three women shut themselves in a mine in Chile on Tuesday to protest the removal of a work program aiding victims of an earthquake and tsunami, in a nod to the rescue of 33 miners there last month. The women, wearing work uniforms and miners' helmets, descended some 500 meters into the 900-meter-deep Chiflon del Diablo, or Draft of the Devil, a former coal mine that is now a tourist attraction, about 500 kilometers south of Santiago. The women had been part of a work program set up for victims of a massive February 27 earthquake and tsunami to help them rebuild their communities and remove rubble, they told local journalists Tuesday. They threatened to start a hunger strike in the mine to persuade authorities to reconsider the program, which employed some 12,000 people, in the 2011 budget, which is currently being discussed in Congress. "We've done many things to be taken into account, but the government hasn't listened to us, so they're obliging us to take measures of force," said Brigida Lara, a colleague of the women, who spoke to La Tercera newspaper at the top of the mine. The women were inspired by the mining disaster-turned-miracle of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for more than two months before being rescued from the San Jose mine, in northern Chile, in October. AFP |
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