CHILEAN MINING, AN INDUSTRY THAT KILLS YOU TO PERMIT REGULATIONS PINOCHET STILL IN FORCE
(373 deaths in a decade, 31 so far this year)
At 0:10 when Chile Wednesday 13, Florencio Avalos, 31, appeared on the surface of the capsule " Fénix2, designed especially for the rescue, by state mining company Codelco . Avalos was the first employee to leave and was greeted by their families, industry peers, the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera , and Mining Minister Laurence Golborne , among other officials.
The San José mine , copper and gold belonging to the company San Esteban is located near the city of Copiapo in the Atacama Desert , about 800 kilometers north of the capital, Santiago . The company had received several complaints about the poor conditions safety of their workers, even in that mine.
For example, in 2007, workers of the company with unions in other companies providing services to the mining company, filed a complaint with the Court of Appeals government and National Service of Geology and Mining 's death three workers in San José site and in the San Antonio . Mobilized workers demanded the closure of San Jose . Since the company union at the site said they had no means of escape, required ventilation or fortification, and that company officials knew the situation.
In this sense, the Chilean daily La Nación reported in its edition of September 22 that "in 2007 the mine was closed after the death of a worker, reopened in 2008, without being equipped with all necessary facilities. " "Everyone knew that the mine descended copper and gold, more than a century, was not safe. Some 80 accidents were reported in the course of decades, " , added Nation.
owners Entrepreneurs San Esteban, Alejandro Marcelo Bohn and Kemen , chose to leave the area of \u200b\u200bthe mine on August 22, just days after it was revealed that workers were living. They have not gone through the camp "Hope" , where relatives of the miners have waited for the rescue of more than two months. San Esteban
is facing several criminal investigations by the collapse of San Jose and previous accidents. Has an order for compensation for the families of nearly 30 of the miners is 12 million dollars. It is hoped that the owners declared bankruptcy of the company. The Chilean government would face another order Millionaire compensation for their failures in the inspection.
The story of the 33 miners trapped in Chile has so far a happy ending. Congratulations! Unfortunately, stories with sad endings are too many in the sector in various parts of the world, where they appear as very often the poor working conditions and safety. In Chile, data National Geological and Mining indicate that in the last decade, 373 workers died in mining accidents. So far in 2010, and van 31 deaths.
Globally, thousands of deaths a year. According to the International Federation Workers Chemical, Energy, Mining and Allied , the mining industry ended with the life of 12,000 workers annually. And that figure is what can be recorded, because it is reported that in many countries the heads of the companies pay the silence of the families of deceased workers.
China is the country where mining is more dangerous. Last year alone 2,631 workers died there. Meanwhile, this year the biggest accidents in the sector claimed the lives of at least 200 people in Sierra Leone and dozens in Colombia, Russia and U.S. .
Only 24 states have now ratified the Convention on Safety and Health in Mines, International Labour Organization (ILO) , signed in 1995. Chile, the largest copper producer, is among the countries in debt.
The history of Chilean mining is already good
As the spokesman of the 33 Chilean miners rescued, Juan Illanes , asked the media to stop " journalistic harassment, media companies and publishers sharpen their teeth with the plight of the workers of the San José mine .
The live broadcast of the rescue of the Chilean miners, which lasted for about 24 hours, became a global spectacle. An estimated one billion viewers followed the live broadcasts. Exhausted news coverage, the story of the 33 miners San Jose prepares for the small and big screen, and also for the books.
The English chain of TV, films Antena 3 for 10 days in Chile 'The 33, San Jose' , a TV movie. Large international chains such as HBO and Discovery Networks documentary prepared on the rescue plan.
Publishers are also hunting. The most coveted part is the text that the operator Victor Segovia wrote in his days of confinement in the mine which would come to pay up to $ 50 000. It is said that this testimony could also lead to screenplay.
What nobody knows is how this will improve working conditions and safety of miners in Chile. In parallel with the drama of San Jose , seven workers were killed in recent weeks in other mines in the country.
Dark Side of the rescue
On Wednesday, Oct. 13 million people around the world continued to live the incredible rescue of 33 workers trapped in the mine
San Jose . But those who came to life that day were the first to warn that another could be the end.
"This can never happen " implored the last of the rescued to the Chilean President Sebastián Piñera
, when surfaced, after 70 days buried 700 meters deep.
"Sáquennos this hell," she had begged one of the workers in a message to the authorities weeks ago.
Fresh out of the hospital, the miner
Edison Peña confessed:
"I thought he would not return. We had very bad. Do you have something happen like what happened to us that everything changes?"
Even when the Chilean president wanted to have prints of the first rescuer down the tunnel to assist workers, questioned the reaction took an unexpected turn may:
"Hopefully all we provide experience and that Chilean mining things are different " , the expert said.
In Chile no more choice but to work risking life or laid off, says the president of the Confederation of Workers
, Arturo Martínez.
According to official data mining is among the four economic activities with higher rates of mortality, accounting for nearly 400 deaths in the last decade and 31 so far this year.
Amid Media hype over
rescue "the 33 , a miner of 26 years died crushed by a rock in a gold deposit in the region of Valparaíso
, to the point that the official
Nation added that the fact muddy the celebrations.
On the causes of the tragedy at the San José mine
, magazine Punto Final
internals brought to light that suggests more than one responsible for what happened. Chilean publication reports that the mine is a gold mining and copper belonging to the Compania Minera San Esteban
, family owned
Kemeny, a long tradition in mining activities. Remember how many years had taken place complaints about the insecurity of the deposit to the National Service
Mining and Geology (SERNAGEOMIN) , health authorities, regional government and the Superintendency of Social Security. These agencies turned a deaf ear, not least given acknowledged receipt and response, said
Punto Final. This attitude is explained by the influence of Kemeny
to the authorities, he said. The newspaper puts the record straight:
"owners of capital are concerned primarily to make money, not taking much in the ways of doing it."
According to the deputy Communist Party
Lautaro Carmona, joy at the rescue of 33 miners must also be accompanied by a reflection on how to correct the laws relating to mining operations in Chile
. Completed
the rescue operation, the Chilean president himself announced a thorough review of safety work in various productive sectors, among which also listed agriculture, transport and fishing.
"We want to draw lessons useful and productive than it could become a tragedy " said Piñera
referring to the collapse of August 5.
"A country that wants to be developed must respect and protect their workers' he said.
And certainly, one month before the collapse of that site had been issued a fine to their owners by the accident that killed a worker and caused her leg was amputated.
At that time, an investigating committee of the Chamber of Deputies
was able to observe several anomalies in the mine, and not having visible and permanent marking danger areas and do not meet hygiene standards and basic safety.
MPs also questioned why the teams that monitor and control their share as the Directorate of Labour,
SERNAGEOMIN and health authorities did not act as relevant facts to public knowledge.
As part of research got to transcend the existence of an opinion, a few days before the collapse, under the rubric of
Raúl Martínez, Secretary Regional Ministerial Health Atacama region, authorized the resumption of mining operations in San Jose
. Shortly thereafter, Martinez
gave up their job.
Lessons for a mining country
Mining in Chile accounts for 47 percent of total exports, accounting for seven percent of gross domestic product.
The country has about 4,500 small and medium-sized mining companies and the state audit institution only has 16 national supervisors, two in the northern province of Copiapo , where is located the site of yore.
After the collapse sounded in the region of Atacama Chilean authorities decided to close 18 mines in this geographic area due to lack of conditions for its exploitation, did not have shelters, or tunnels for ventilation, no escape routes .
According to the doctor in history, Mario Amorós , the drama of the 33 was a direct result of working conditions devoid of guarantees and rights in the context of neoliberal economics and greed employers with a dark history of accidents.
When news of the rescue overwhelming shocked the world, the former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet confesóque miners gave an example of bravery and discipline, but warned against excessive euphoria and called to draw lessons. "This accident was avoided. When we speak of a decent job can not think only of the salary, but that its conditions to ensure the physical integrity" .
A survey following the rescue of "the 33" reveals the skepticism of most Chileans with regard to possible improvements in job security. According to a study Consultant set between imagination and daily Cooperative Chile, 57 percent of respondents believe that employers soon forget the lessons left by the event and everything will be as before. Nearly 97 percent of respondents considered that the climate of insecurity is a general problem of the Chilean labor activity.
In 2009, the country registered more than 190,000 accidents, with a score of 443 dead. But the dark side of the Chilean reality is not widely spoken in the world, even in times of miners and landslides.
Within a decade, have died in accidents in Chile 373 miners, 31, last year
By Hugo Guzman (*) 
Everyone could see the rescue of 33 miners trapped for two months to 700 meters deep in the San José mine in the region of Atacama in northern Chile. But no one spoke of the 31 miners killed in the last year in this country, the wild precarious working conditions and that while the price of copper increased the accident rate rose.
While millions watched the departure of those workers from the depths of the earth, hiding the banners and the voices of the other 300 miners in the company San Esteban-which includes San Jose, who were fired, which owed wages and compensation not paid. Javier Castillo, head of the union, said the 328 workers remaining in the San José mine are not good and said the authorities and the fear that we remove (at 33 miners) of the bubble in which the government has.
The leader of the Confederation of Workers of Chile, Marcos Canales, said: This was an accident that should never happen. But the history of the San José mine is dark and paradigm of what happens with other mining companies in Chile today.
accidents occurred since 1999, whose owners making millions of dollars. In 2004 a miner died there. At that time, workers protested and appealed to the Court of Appeals as to ensure safety, stating that he had reached the culmination of a sequel of accidents have been dragging on for over five years, which workers have reported to regulatory agencies (that) never gave an answer. Justice either. Ignored the claim of San Jose. Six years after the mine collapsed and trapped the 33 miners.
addition to the company, government agencies as the National Service of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin), the Department of Labor, the Regional Health Secretariat, the Superintendency of Social Security and the regional government ignored the demands of the miners and unsafe mine . This is accentuated by failure that occurred on the hill where the mine is San Jose and weaknesses in the structure. In 2007, the site was closed by presenting negative conditions, but authorities reopened.
Cristian Cuevas, president of the Confederation of Copper Workers, noted that the drama of the 33 miners is a default action, a criminal act for employers and state institutions. There is a wrongful action as a fact not expected to be avoided.
The data used in Chile show that in the last decade have killed 373 miners and last year 31, nearly as many of those rescued in San Jose. The vast majority belong to medium and small mining and pirquineros segment, working in small mines informally. In the state National Copper Corporation and copper multinationals, the accident rate is low.
miners dead and the living have common factors: low wages, insecure, miserable forecast, lack of contracts or temporary contracts, job insecurity, corporate abuse, lack of hygiene and prevention, and the blackmail that the absence of accepted work under deplorable conditions. Greed
figures
The corporate greed that is reflected in 2002-according to newspaper reports and Carla Obregon Paul Gardella, the statistics speak for 28 fatal mining accidents, with the price of copper at 0.8 cents per pound. When in 2007 was quoted at 3.2 dollars per pound, the dead rose to 40. The medium and small private strained force work to extract the mineral, without investing in security.
These data are added unique episodes. Days before the collapse in San Jose, the conservative government of Sebastián Piñera decided to close the Scheduled Inspection Unit Office, the Ministry of Labor, specifically responsible for overseeing the business case for meeting standards for workers. And the accident at the mine, it was learned that the Sernageomin, which should ensure security in the fields, just had two auditors in the region of Atacama, which operates dozens of medium and small mines.
Marcos Canales told La Jornada that are poor and unsafe conditions Chilean miners 'and no indication that the situation will change, because that would change the economic system that protects those employers and workers' rights violated. And will be remembered for San Jose and 33 miners, but will follow the drama of hundreds of men who risked their health and life by winning a paltry salary extracting copper.
In a country where foreign corporations last year had profits of 10 billion dollars and this year are expected to be 37 billion. That is, the copper, which President Salvador Allende defined as the salary of Chile, could perfectly meet the needs of the miners (and the vast majority of Chileans). But they seem invisible. Until death and then surround the bulbs are lit.
(*) Hugo Guzman is a Chilean political analyst in exile in Mexico during the Pinochet dictatorship. This article has been published in La Jornada on 16 October 2010
Chilean Ghosts have been rescued
By John Pilger (* )
The rescue of 33 miners in Chile is an extraordinary drama, full of pathos and heroism. It is also wind downwind media for the Chilean government: its bounty has been registered by a forest of cameras.
The accident that trapped the miners is not unheard of in Chile, is the inevitable consequence of the ruthless economic system that has barely changed since the days of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Copper is Chile's gold, and frequency of mining disasters are related with prices and the benefits. On average, each year there are 39 fatal accidents in mines in Chile privatized. Work in the San José mine became so insecure in 2007, he had to close. But not for long. Last July 30, a report by the Chilean ministry of labor said "serious safety deficiencies", but the minister took no action. Six days later, the miners were buried.
In spite of all the media circus deployed in situ during the rescue, Chile today is a country silenced. In the Villa Grimaldi, a suburb of Santiago, a poster reads: "The past is full of forgotten memory." It was the torture center where hundreds of people were killed or disappeared for opposing fascism imposed on Chile by General Augusto Pinochet and his business allies. His ghostly presence goes unnoticed by the imposing beauty of the backdrop Andes. The man lived in close proximity care and still remembers the screams.
I visited the village one winter morning in 2006. I took Sara De Witt, who was imprisoned there when I was a student activist. (He now lives in London.) Was electrocuted and beaten, but survived. Then we went to the house of Salvador Allende, the great democrat and reformer who was killed on Golden State Pinochet on 11 September 1973 (11-S in Latin America). His house is a quiet white building with no license plates and commemorative signs.
would seem that the name of Salvador Allende has been deleted everywhere. Only the lonely cemetery memorial can be read, recorded on a list of "political execution", the words "President of the Republic." Allende died by his own hand, while Pinochet bombed the presidential palace and British American ambassador watched the show.
Now Chile is a democracy, though many would object to that rating, especially in the neighborhoods have to rummage through the garbage and stealing electricity. In 1990, Pinochet imposed a constitutional commitment as a condition of their own retirement and the transition from military to political shadow. This ensures that the reformist parties in a broad sense, the so-called coalition, are permanently broken or forced to legitimize the economic plans of the dictator's supporters. In the last elections, the right-wing Coalition for Change, the creation of pinochestista ideologue Jaime Guzmán, brought to power President Sebastián Piñera. It culminated in the bloody sneak and eradication of true democracy that began with the death of Allende.
Piñera is a billionaire who controls a good portion of the mining, energy and retail. He made his fortune after the Pinochet coup, during the "experiments" free market fundamentalists of the University of Chicago called "Chicago boys." His brother and former business partner, José Piñera, Pinochet's minister of labor, mining and privatized the public pension system and was determined to destroy unions. What he received the applause of Washington as an "economic miracle", a cult model for neo-liberalism that was to engulf the continent and north ensure their control.
today's Chile is critical of Obama's onslaught against independent democracies of Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela. The closest ally of Piñera is the main man in Washington in the area, Juan Manuel Santos, the new president of Colombia, which has 7 U.S. military bases and an infamous record in human rights, which are well known Chileans who suffered the terror of Pinochet.
The post-Pinochet Chile has been in the shadow of their own abuses. Families still seeking recovery of torture or disappearance of their loved ones are treated with prejudice by the State and its officials. Do not shut the Mapuche, the only Indian nation to which the English conquistadors failed to defeat. In the late nineteenth century, European settlers and an independent Chile launched its racist war of extermination against the Mapuche, leaving them impoverished in marginal conditions. That began to change during the thousand days of the Allende government. Some Mapuche land were returned, and acknowledged a debt of justice.
Since then it has been waging a war as evil as muted against the Mapuche. It has allowed large forestry companies seize their land and their resistance has been countered with assassinations, disappearances and arbitrary prosecutions under the guise of "antiterrorist" laws adopted by the dictatorship. In his civil disobedience campaigns, no mapuche inflicted the least harm to anyone. Has sufficed for a landlord or an employer, he charged that the Mapuche "might get to cross" the limits that have been confined and enter their ancestral lands, so that the police are accused of crimes flowed into Kafkaesque judicial process, with faceless witnesses and prison sentences of 20 years. It is in fact political prisoners.
While the world is pleased with the performance of the rescue of the miners, there is no notice of the 38 Mapuche hunger strikers demanding the abolition of laws pinochestistas-like "terrorist arson" - with which they have been justice processing and real democracy. On 9 October, all the hunger strikers, but one ended their protest 90 days without food intake. A young Mapuche, Luis Marileo, says he will continue the strike. On October 18, Piñera is President to give a lecture at the London School of Economics. Should take this opportunity to remind all that.
(*) John Pilger is a British critic and political analyst. This article has been published in Information Clearing House on October 15, 2010.
(Sources: RadioMundoReal, booksellers, Prensa Latina, La Jornada and Information Clearing House-SINPERMISO)
The United Nations General Assembly agreed last June celebrate the October 20 first ' World Statistics Day '. And when something does not work we set out to "celebrate" the Day; the art of lying without being noticed so necessary in all areas: according to the latest statistics ... need to celebrate their day, and in the Institutes and not impart Statistics as optional a Bachelor in , pleasantly remember the last course that I taught, when, without the pressure of the selectivity, enjoy making surveys, selecting samples that were reliable Organizing and resent the data with the Excel spreadsheet, setting out in class work and, above all, drawing conclusions, which is the most interesting part of this work. 
By 1840 Florence Nightingale begged her parents to let her study mathematics, but his mother did not approve of this idea. Although his father loved mathematics and had instilled this love for his daughter, lintentó to explore topics more appropriate for a woman, was a pupil of Sylvester, who developed the theory of invariants with Cayley, influenced by Quetelet , the mathematician who must BMI (also called index Quetelec) then applied his knowledge of statistics to study the "average man " , but we can not only consider this heroine the first woman to apply statistics to save lives in the Crimean War nurse from his post, but it did was a respectable profession, emphasizing education as a pillar of health improvement wrote about two hundred treaties and reports that have affected this improvement: len military health, social care in India, civilian hospitals, the medical statistics and in assisting the sick. His greatest contribution was the creation of educational of new institutions for medical training both military and hospital nurses. 
