Chilean Miners Rescue: Was it a Hoax?

The 33 Chilean Miners who were reportedly trapped underground for more than two months were rescued yesterday to cheers and a big sigh of relief for family members and everyone around the world that had been following this story. But as we here at People Liking People were watching the rescue on television, something seemed just a little too perfect about the ordeal, almost as it were made for TV.

Here is the footage of the first and second miners rescued:






We haven't really had time yet to go through all the information, the articles, the footage...etc to really make a firm case for it being a hoax. We're still up in the air on it, but something really seems off with this. First of all, you'd expect the miners to be dirty, unkempt, and extremely lethargic after being down there for 2 months with barely anything to eat. They are all clean shaven and not much of a mark on them at all. Now, we've heard from people who said "well obviously they all wanted to look good for their big day, so they sent razors down there". That could be true but...it just doesn't seem important enough to do that. 2 months without shaving honestly doesn't look that bad, so they'll look a little scruffy - big whoop.

Secondly: as you watch the video, you'll notice they keep panning back and forth from the hole in the ground to the family members as they wait in suspense for their loved one to come up. There is something about the way the boy of the first miner is behaving that just comes off as overdone acting. He seemed to be playing up just a bit too much what they know everyone wants to see - the poor family that hadn't seen their dad/husband in months, this big emotional moment where it goes from suspense to complete excitement and euphoria.

I could be wrong but you would think that immediately after a rescue like this, they would all be put on a stretcher and the first priority would be for medical personnel to take over and get them to the hospital. Eventually they did this of course, but there seemed to be quite a delay from getting out of the hole to that point, making sure that great TV moment was captured and sustained for everyone's viewing pleasure. And the miners seemed to have just too much energy for people that have been kept down there for so long without adequate food and oxygen. By the way, at least one guy is wearing sunglasses, what's up with that?

Another thing that seemed odd was the noise level - it seemed way too low. Usually with a big rescue operation like this, you have everyone trying to help and you got family members excited to see their rescued loved ones, and there's a ton of commotion. In these videos, sure there's shouting with glee, talking...etc but it seems almost like they're taking turns. A little holler from over there, a comment over here...etc but there seems to be lacking that "crowd noise" that you'd expect. And that sort of makes sense if this was staged, the people standing around wouldn't be standing around BSing as much, they'd just be playing their role and wouldn't say much unless it was in the script.

As much as we hate getting into conspiracy theories here, something just smells about this ordeal and we'll be looking through as much information as we can over the next few weeks to see if we can uncover anything. If you have any information or tips, feel free to e-mail us at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com