“Things went on down there which will never be spoken of”

Although the 33 have presented a display of unity since being discovered alive, in the early days, some of the men were allegedly “treated as second class citizens within the refuge”, according to a source within the rescue team who had spoken to Chilean national newspaper El Mercurio.

“Actually they were marginalised and had set up camp in another part of the mine, away from the rest of the group”, the source said…

“It was important to have them all working together as a team,” said Alberto Iturra, the chief psychologist at the mine, confirming that there had been a split. “I don’t exactly know what occurred between them but the most important thing is the problem was resolved. The system we used worked and since then they have been operating well as a team.”