Los 33 héroes de San José: De la incción al show de la catástrofe

Abstract

33 is just a number or may be more than that. One can refer indistinctively to the age of Christ or even to the crusade of 33 Orientals, a mythical group of insurgents that paved the ways for the advent of independence in Uruguay. It can be said that recently the number 33 became a symbol of "courage, dignity and dedication" in Copiapó, Chile whenever 33 miners were caught in a landslide trapped unexpected kept for several days with scarce resources and food. Basically, an event of this nature has been immediately covered by mass-media highlighting the ability to survive in times of uncertainty and adversity, even President Sebastian Piñera arrived at megacity built where thousand of journalists expected his presence in order to welcome every miners. Clearly, this rescue was certainly coordinated by hundreds of experts who still remain in anonymity. To some extent, the real cause of this collapse as well as political and economic complicity that led to these 33 people be temporary deprived of his liberty underground is unknown. Under this conjuncture, this work critically emphasizes on what Baudrillard called "the spectacle of disaster". There is a strong relationship between political discourse and human suffering. This suggests that the show of disaster creates cynical indifference to the suffering of others despite of mass media’s coverage.