Anguish in Mexico for the collapse of a coal mine: ten workers are trapped

At least ten workers remained in the early hours of this Thursday trapped inside a coal mine located in the state of Cohauila, north of Mexico. According to official sources, at this time the dramatic rescue efforts to get them out of that place, which suffered a landslide and then was flooded.

“At the moment, three miners have already been rescued alive and transferred to the hospital” of the Mexican Institute of Social Security in the municipality of Sabinas, “while ten are still inside,” the Mexican Security Secretariat said in a statement.

According to this organization, the mine located in the community of La Agujita suffered “the flooding of three connected wells in a drag minewhich generated the softening of the internal walls, causing the trapping of workers.

“After the incident which occurred at 13:35 (Mexico), the federal government immediately deployed personnel in the area to provide support to the state and municipal government, in order to coordinate search actions and obtain the rescue of the people who find themselves. inside the mine ”, the report read.

The tasks are carried out by 92 elements of the National Defense Secretariat (SEDEN), as has been officially specified. In addition, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) provides assistance and the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) through PIAE management has provided 400 meters of hose and 4 brigade members for rescue and extraction operations. water from the mine.

“The work will not stop until its position is reached.the government of Mexico guarantees all the resources necessary to carry out search and rescue actions ”, it was remarked.

The Mexican authorities have clarified that “the mine is registered as an employer before the IMSS without debts in the payment of worker-employer taxes”.

The concern of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Initially, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, reported via Twitter that the number of captive workers after the collapse was nine.

The president reported that personnel from various areas of the government, in addition to the Civil Defense and the Mexican army, are working on the site of the accident, located about 1,130 km north of Mexico City, in the so-called Coahuila coal region.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor and the government of Coahuila have reported the mine went into operation last January ”and to date there is no history of complaints from some kind of anomaly, “according to a joint statement.

Relatives of the workers staged dramatic scenes around the mine, which was cordoned off by the National Guard, where they stood for several hours waiting for news of their loved ones.

The mother of one of the workers was crying inconsolably in front of the cameras, unable to answer questions from the press, while another unidentified woman said that two of her children work in the mine, even though one of them had managed to escape the collapse.

The governor of Coahuila, Miguel Riquelme, complained about the incident and said he asked the labor authorities and the local prosecutor’s office to give priority “to rescuing the trapped people and then to attest the facts”.

In June last year, seven miners died after the collapse of another coal mine in the Múzquiz region, also located in Coahuila, the main producer of the coal 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, killed 65 workers.

With information from EFE and AFP.

IS