Bolivia owes Chile huge debt for miner's rescue - Morales

Bolivian President Evo Morales today arrived to greet a countryman pulled from a Chilean mine after a 10-week ordeal, saying he could never repay Chile for saving the man's life.

"In the name of the Bolivian government, I don't know how to repay this effort," he told Chilean television as he arrived at the Copiapo airport to head to the San Jose mine.

"It's historic, unprecedented and unforgettable for the Bolivian people to see so many miners rescued, and among them our brother Carlos," he said.

Carlos Mamani, the only Bolivian among the 33 miners, was among the first to be pulled from the depths of the mine where the men have been trapped since an August 5 cave-in. His 32 colleagues are all Chilean.

"This kind of thing brings us together ... it strengthens us and creates trust from people to people, from president to president," Morales added, as he headed to meet his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera.

Mamani, 23, who is married with one-year-old baby girl, returned to the surface in a special capsule early today, the fourth miner to be extracted safely from the mine.

The operation to rescue all the men was going like clockwork, with 14 of the men so far brought to the surface. All of them were expected to be safe and sound by early tomorrow.