We will not rest until all the miners are recovered from El Pinabete: CNPC

Mexico City. “I can never forget this moment, when my sister and I arrived barefoot” to find out what happened when the El Pinabete mine was flooded, leaving 10 workers buried two years ago, said Angélica Montelongo Pérez, sister of Jaime, 61, one of the victims of the tragedy on August 3, 2022.

Outside the mine located in the Agujita community, in the El Mezquite ejido, family members and friends participated this Saturday in a mass that was held to remember the six miners who remain inside.

She said she came to show solidarity with the other families, as her brother has already been buried but “that sadness does not go away,” so she said she hopes that this type of tragedy does not happen again.

“This is something we hope will never happen again, and we hope the young people who still work in the coal pits take good care of themselves,” he said in an interview with local media.

The priest Mariano Carrillo Alba, parish priest of San Francisco de Asís, led the religious ceremony and –in statements outside the mine– pointed out that two years after the collapse, the most important thing “is to know that (the authorities) care about them, as Civil Protection and the Federal Electricity Commission are doing.”

Foto X @CNPC_MX

The National Coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez Alzúa, stated on social media that since the day of the accident, they have worked uninterruptedly for 730 days, the bodies of four miners have been recovered, and she assured that “we will not rest until we recover” the remaining six workers.

“The ceremony was an act of solidarity and remembrance for those who lost their lives and their families,” he said on social media.

The federal government presented a progress report yesterday and noted that the accident “was caused by an unplanned advance in the extraction of the mineral, which resulted in an unexpected flooding of the coal pit.”

He revealed that new progress has been made with the discovery of 25 relevant “non-biological” finds, such as shovels, wheelbarrows, a pneumatic gun, glasses, gloves, a skimmer, knee pads and sections of hose that the miners used to bring in oxygen or to extract water.

Foto X @CNPC_MX

He said that “no government in the world has a record of a civil work of this magnitude to provide social justice.”

Two years ago, at the time of the accident, 15 miners were working in the excavation. Ten did not manage to get out and their bodies remained in the mud and water.

Last April, the Unified Command, made up of various authorities, notified the families of the deceased of the results of the identification of the biological evidence recovered between December 27, 2023 and January 16, 2024.

The remains found belong to four miners: Hugo Tijerina Amaya, Jorge Luis Martínez Valdez, Jaime Montelongo Pérez and José Rogelio Moreno Morales, authorities reported.