Bodies recovered of mine collapse victims in northern Mexico
Mexico City, Jun 10 (EFE).- Non-profit organization Familia Pasta de Conchos said Thursday that the seventh and last of the bodies of the miners buried after a mine collapsed in the municipality of Múzquiz had been found.
“We mourn the loss of our colleague, Juan Carlos Moreno Cervantes. The Attorney General of Mexico (FGE) said that his body has been recovered,” the organization, comprising of family members of victims of a mining accident in the Mexican state of Coahuila in 2006, said in a message on Twitter.
Moreno was initially identified as the fifth miner, but was handed over to the wrong family, an error that the authorities acknowledged and said later that the fifth body recovered was that of Damián Ernesto Arias.
On Wednesday night, the FGE reported that a sixth body had been pulled out, that of Leopoldo Méndez Sánchez.
According to the organization, the bodies recovered in previous days were of miners Mauricio Cortés, Humberto Rodríguez, Pedro Ramírez and Gonzalo Alberto Cruz.
The recovery of the bodies of the seven miners was completed nearly a week after the mine collapsed on June 4.
After news of the collapse broke out, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on his social media accounts that the National Guard and the army had been deployed to the site, and wished a favorable outcome of the rescue operation.
Authorities say that it appears a flood caused the roof and walls of the mine to collapse, leaving the miners trapped inside. Industrial pumps were brought in to remove the water from the mine and make it possible for search teams to enter.
Civil protection authorities and inspectors from the labor ministry are also engaged in rescue efforts at the site.
The accident at Muzquiz has revived memories of the Feb. 19, 2006, disaster at Pasta de Conchos. The bodies of all but two of the 65 miners killed remain buried in the mine.
Since then, there have been more than 100 deaths of miners in the area, according to Familia Pasta de Conchos.
On Oct. 23, the organization wrote to the director of Mexico’s state-owned CFE electric utility, Manuel Bartlett, about the precarious conditions at the mine in Muzquiz.
However, on Saturday, the company distanced itself from the incident and said that the mine did not supply coal to the CFE and therefore “it was impossible for its director (Bartlett) to be aware of the event.” EFE
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