Chilean Miner Returns to Bolivia to Meet President Morales

The most popular sensational story flooding news the past few months has been the thirty-three miners trapped beneath the ground in Chile. Today I saw Carlos Mamani, the Bolivian miner, while meeting Vivi for lunch.

Vivi now works as a judicial lawyer for the Governor of La Paz. I showed up early before Vivi’s two and a half hour lunch break/siesta and joined the large crowd in front of the Presidential Palace. Suddenly, an envoy of black SUVs with tinted windows sped up to the entrance. Naturally, I pulled out my cell phone to snap a shot of the President, who I assumed was going to pop out of the backseat. But a nearby journalist let me know that the Bolivian miner Carlos Mamani was scheduled to meet with President Evo Morales. Since the camera on my cell phone is slow and takes a minute to recharge, I only got one shot of the miner walking into the Palace. And it turns out that I took my lone picture of the diversion, another man wearing a mining helmet who stepped out of the SUV a split second before Mamani actually did (I apologize for the misleading photo above). But I stood feet away from the Mamani and his wife holding a newborn child, and watched as they were ushered into the Palace and as my camera fully recharged as they disappeared out of site.

The crowd of televisions crews and newspaper reporters from all over the world followed the humble celebrity inside to record his meeting with the President and the following Q&A session. I decided to march along with the group. But the guards wouldn’t let me into the press conference without presenting credentials. They didn’t seem to think that my blog, “Just A Thought…,” counted as a legitimate news source.

After lunch, I decided to go back to the Presidential Palace, this time with my camera in hand. I was determined to prove to these eighteen year old guards that “Just A Thought…” could be a world-class news source and capture its own pictures of one of the famous thirty-three miners, who now famously turned down a job offer from President Morales, so as to famously return to Chile. But after the news conference, the miner was escorted to the back door and left in secrecy from the garage.

While the rest of my colleagues in the press attempted to get pictures of Mamani through tinted SUV windows, I waited a the front entrance to the Palace, stubbornly ignorant, thinking Mamani would leave from the same way he came in. It turns out, the miner provided the perfect press distraction. Less than five feet away from me, and with surprisingly little security, President Evo Morales quietly exited the Palace and drove off in his bulletproof BMW.

...Just another typical day in Bolivia...

President Evo Morales (left) as he leaves the Presidential Palace.

Chilean Miner Returns to Bolivia to Meet President Morales