The families of the workers remain hopeful a week after the accident and fear that the hypothesis of the experts will materialize, who consider their chances of survival to be very low
The desperation increases more and more for the relatives of the miners trapped for a week in a coal mine in Mexico. “You go into the well but you never know if you are going to get out. It is darker than night”, expresses Josué Rodríguez sadly, who waits in the northern region of Coahuila to receive good news about his father, Margarito, 39, who along with nine other companions has been without contact since last day 3 under land, without water or food and, in the best of cases, depending on the air reserves of some underground pocket. His relatives, with their hearts in a fist, fear that the hypothesis of the experts will materialize, who at this point consider his chances of survival very low.
Just before the accident, while the workers were excavating at a depth of 34 meters, an underground river caused a flood in the deposit, blocking the exits. After eight days of frustrating waiting without positive news about the event, hopes were reactivated this Tuesday, when the rescuers were “hours away” from entering the mine, as specified by Laura Velázquez, national coordinator of Civil Protection. But the rescue teams face adverse conditions and, added to the danger of making the situation worse for the miners or even of becoming trapped themselves during the work, the last missions have failed.
In the last operation, a group of divers who had entered the flooded mine was forced to abort yesterday due to the risk of collapses and the abundant remains of wood and other obstacles that impeded their progress. However, the efforts have not ended. “Work is never suspended, they work 24 hours a day; our work can be testified by the relatives of our miners », Velázquez affirmed yesterday, and advanced that he hoped that by this Friday the miners could already be rescued. In that sense, he stressed that 148,460 cubic meters of water have already been extracted, enough volume for the level to have partially dropped, so that in one of the three wells they are reaching “levels where rescuers can enter.” “We understand the urgency, but we have to be very careful not to expose anyone,” he stressed. The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for his part, added that “these activities will continue, the divers will continue to make attempts” to gain access.
Despite the arduous rescue tasks in adverse conditions, the families have lived during these days in continuous torture. «The miner will always be like this, he will always be risking his life day by day, they do not know if today or tomorrow they will return. That is the risk they take, but it is the sustenance of each house, they have dedicated their whole lives to being miners. These are the words of Sendy Jazmin Torres, accompanied for days by anguish and despair, who waits in tears for her brother, Ramiro, to leave the site safe and sound. The miner, at 24 years old, is the father of a six-year-old girl and a baby just a few days old. The men of the family are dedicated to the same trade. “My other brother and my father are volunteer rescuers,” says Sendy.
desperate families
Sergio Gabriel Cruz (41) is another of the faces that have starred in the Aztec media in the last week. He started working at the coal mine in Villa de Agüita, Sabinas, two months ago, although he has been extracting minerals for 23 years. His wife and his two girls are waiting for him at home. In the same situation is Mario Alberto Cabriales (45), with two children, José Luis Mireles Argüijo (46 years old), with a boy. Hugo Tijerina Amaya (29 years old) was not as lucky as his brother Raymundo, who managed to get out of the well before the collapse.
José Rogelio Moreno Leija, 42, and his son José Rogelio Moreno Morales, 23, worked together at the site and neither of them managed to get out. They remain with Jorge Luis Martínez (34), who despite the low pay – miners receive a salary ranging from one thousand to five thousand pesos per week (from 45 to 240 euros) – dedicated himself to this job because he was his only source of employment, assures his family.
the hero of the story
And in every story there is a hero. In this case it could well be Jaime Montelongo Pérez. The 61-year-old helped two workers out of the well minutes before it collapsed. Although the water was already up to his waist, and despite the fact that his companions asked him to be safe, he steeled himself and decided to go in search of the other workers. Unfortunately, he was unable to get out of the deposit, which is of the type called ‘pocito’, very common to extract coal in Coahuila. These are artisanal infrastructures that pose a significant danger to those who work in them since they lack a concrete structure that protects them from landslides like an industrial mine, explained metallurgical engineer Guillermo Iglesias.
The slowness and inefficiency of the personnel working in the operation has provoked harsh criticism against the Government of López Obrador, who was received a few days ago with boos during his visit to the place, since many close friends considered that “he has come only to take the photo ». Despite the difficulty of the situation, the relatives maintain the hope of embracing their loved ones, safe and sound, as soon as possible, while the rescue efforts continue.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. The collapse recalls what happened in February 2006 at the Pasta de Conchos mine, also in Coahuila, where 65 workers died in an accident and only two bodies were recovered. Last June, another flood in a coal deposit in the same region broke the roof and walls of the mine and trapped seven miners inside. Nobody got out alive. According to the Pasta de Conchos Family, which brings together the relatives of miners who died in 2006, since then there have been more than one hundred deaths in the sector.
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