(Mexico City) The search for the ten miners missing in three flooded coal pits in northeastern Mexico for three weeks could take six to eleven months, families said Thursday, who say they are “desperate”.
Posted at 5:56 p.m.
They have no evidence of life of the miners underground since August 3. The authorities have never mentioned their death and say they continue to carry out rescue operations, even if the fatal outcome seems inevitable.
“We are desperate. We don’t know what to do. We cannot accept this,” Juani Cabriales, sister of one of the miners trapped underground at the El Pinabete mine in Coahuila state, told AFP.
“We were hoping it would take a month. But almost a year is not possible. There must be other solutions,” added Guadalupe Cabriales, also the sister of a missing miner.
The families had just met the head of civil protection, Laura Velazquez, who explained to them the plan of the authorities.
The strategy proposed by M.me Velázquez includes three “options” that are being evaluated, one of which is to open a tunnel with “inclined access ramps” to reach the galleries of the mine, in addition to pumping water.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Thursday that the plan would be presented to family members for approval, before being presented publicly on Friday.
PHOTO MOSES CASTILLO, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
The flooding of the mine occurred during excavation work which caused an influx of accumulated water in a nearby mine.
Five workers were able to escape but ten are missing.
The original plan was to pump water into the mine to allow entry for divers and rescuers. But, after several days of effort, the level suddenly rose.
The Mexican government has requested the help of American and German companies to help with the relief operations.
The state of Coahuila provides almost all of the coal produced by Mexico, most of the time under very precarious security conditions for miners.
Several accidents have bereaved the region, the most important of which took place on February 19, 2006: 65 workers died in an explosion in a coal mine. Only two bodies had been recovered.