Relatives of 10 miners who have been trapped for more than 33 hours after the collapse of a precarious coal deposit in Mexico cling this Friday to the hope that they are still alive, but they also complain about their risky working conditions.
Jesús Mireles Romo, 24, was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the accident, even before the authorities. His father, José Luis, is one of the captive miners in Sabinas, a municipality in Coahuila, in northeastern Mexico.
“I am in desperation, not knowing what is happening, how long will I see him again?” he told AFP while his voice cracked between tears and anguish.
Mireles and other relatives have accompanied without pause the arduous and hurried work to free the workers. They wait in the vicinity of the sinkhole, about 60 meters deep, which suddenly collapsed when it was flooded by three wells connected to the gallery.
“Time is very important here, so we are very focused (…) to be able to rescue the miners as soon as possible,” Laura Velázquez, national coordinator of Civil Protection, said Thursday during the daily conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. .
“What I want with all my soul is that we rescue the miners,” the president said in turn. “We must not lose faith,” he added, addressing the families of the workers.
“Don’t lose hope”
Trucks from the state power company CFE illuminate the area of the mine, where 234 government rescuers work against the clock to free the miners.
The purr of the powerful pumps that extract the water accompanies the hustle and bustle of rescuers and family members.
Mireles has not moved from the place since Wednesday afternoon and with his two brothers he tried to help the victims before the government personnel took over the rescue.
“It is painful to see your children who do not lose hope of seeing their father again,” said Claudia Romo, the 45-year-old mother of Jesús.
The mine is located some 1,130 km north of Mexico City, in the so-called Coahuila coal region.
After the collapse, five miners “managed to get out” and were taken to a hospital, of which two were discharged, Velázquez said.
The site is working with eight extraction pumps and another 17 pumping equipment with greater capacity is expected “to speed up the work,” reported the governor of Coahuila, Miguel Riquelme.
“Risk and Necessity”
The damaged mine has three interconnected shafts through which coal is extracted, according to a diagram presented by the army.
The accident occurred when, while digging, the workers ran into an adjoining area full of water “which caused a flood when it collapsed,” explained the Civil Protection coordinator.
Blasa Maribel Navarro is also waiting behind the security perimeter made up of National Guard agents.
His cousin Sergio Cruz, 41, had only been working in this mine for two months, but several years in the dangerous job of extracting coal to support his two daughters.
“It’s always job insecurity,” laments Navarro.
“With the risk that there is and the need (…) at home, that’s what they get to, right? To work in these places,” adds the woman, who, despite everything, maintains the hope of seeing him alive. “Because we trust in God,” she says.
tragic background
The collapsed mine is of the type called “pocito”, widely used to extract coal in Coahuila.
They are artisanal infrastructures that are usually dangerous for those who work in them because they do not have concrete infrastructure that protects workers from landslides like an industrial mine, metallurgical engineer Guillermo Iglesias explained to a local radio station.
Governor Riquelme explained to the press that the plans for the mine “were not up to date” and that “there was no idea” of the conditions of the mine.
In June 2021, seven miners died after the collapse of another coal mine in the Múzquiz region, also in Coahuila, the main producer of said mineral in Mexico.
The most serious mining accident in this region, bordering the United States, occurred on February 19, 2006, when a gas explosion at the Pasta de Conchos mine, controlled by the Grupo México conglomerate, caused the death of 65 workers.
Only two bodies were rescued after that tragedy.
Given an alleged inaction by the State, the case was taken to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where the litigation continues. Last February, the government announced the start of work to rescue the bodies, but the families have expressed their dissatisfaction with the slow pace of the process.
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