Mexico: Pasta de Conchos coal mine sealed
Two mothers arrested as remains of 63 workers are left underground
[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for May 8. See also "Mexican authorities retake Cananea mine" posted here on June 7.]
By Patricia Muñoz Ríos and Leopoldo Ramos
The Familia Pasta de Conchos reports that early yesterday morning, after the violent removal of workers from the Cananea mine, managers of Grupo México also took over the facilities of the number eight mine, where 65 miners died more than three years ago, and that “the state police of Coahuila, in 20 patrol cars, escorted luxury automobiles carrying company representatives” as they entered the facility.
The organization declares that the police arrested two women, the mothers of dead miners, who “were forced into a patrol car with blows and shoving,” for which a complaint will be filed with the Ministerio Público.
It holds that the arrival of the police on Monday morning, as well as the escort provided to representatives of Grupo México as they took over Pasta de Conchos, are documented in photographs and videos. Company representatives also brought in cement and steel reinforcement “with the object of sealing the mine.”
The family members called on Governor Humbeto Moreira “to end the violence he is perpetrating against the relatives and to stop his police from protecting and covering the actions of the company.”
They state that lawyers present at a meeting of a committee of the International Labor Organization, which is following the “recommendations on Pasta de Conchos, has reported the actions taken on Monday in support of Grupo México.”
Closing was ordered by the Dirección General de Minas
Meanwhile, in Saltillo, Coahuila, it was reported that Pasta de Conchos will be sealed by order of the Dirección de Minas, of the Secretaría de Economía, thus establishing definitively that the bodies of 63 workers trapped inside will remain there, according to interior secretary Armando Luna Canales.
The official explained the reasons for the operation carried out at the mining facilities by state police early Monday morning, during which the company ejected some ten family members and activists who were demanding that the bodies buried there for more than four years be retrieved.
“We are obeying instructions of the Dirección General de Minas, which orderd the company (Industrial Minera México, an affiliate of Grupo México) to close it, and to that end asked for the support of the police force. Work had been halted (in the mine) and precisely what was ordered was the closure, which means installing a cover over the minehead.”
Thus the family members’ demand for resumption of search and rescue efforts to retrieve the workers’ remains is being disregarded completely. The pit, which is in the municipality of San Juan de Sabinas, about 350 kilometers north of Saltillo, is being guarded by some 60 state police officers.
A total of 65 miners were killed and buried by an explosion in the coal mine on February 19, 2006. Rescue teams managed to retrieve two of the bodies but the reamaining 63 are still 150 meters below ground.
Tags: Cananea, coal mines, Familia Pasta de Conchos, Grupo Mexico, Mexico, miners, Pasta de Conchos