The capsule of life returns from the pit without a trace of the Coahuila miners

Rescuers trying to extricate the 10 men who were trapped in Sabinas, Coahuila, from the mine shaft have received another blow to morale.

Two army divers descended around 5:15 p.m. this Wednesday to the coal galleries where the miners were left incommunicado after a flood that caused the collapse of a tunnel a week ago.

The military have entered what they have called a "life capsule", a kind of yellow metal cage that is used in this kind of rescue.

When the divers have reached the iron - the bottom of the well - they have been forced to abort the rescue mission when they found wooden pillars that hindered the passage.

Still no sign of the miners.

Wood and sticks is all they have been able to get out so far.

Any small discovery is experienced with intensity in the absence of palpable progress.

On this occasion, some unofficial sources have indicated that the two divers have found a helmet sunk in the mud, perhaps in the hope that the rescue will give results.

The relatives of the miners, emotionally exhausted by the lack of results, have rebuked the professional rescuers.

More than 192 hours have passed and it is still not known if they are still alive or dead.

Throughout the morning, the operation deployed to rescue the workers has extracted wooden slats from the tunnels that obstructed the mine entrances and made it difficult for the divers to dive.

Nothing more.

Pessimism spreads.

During the week in which several rescue raids have already been attempted, the main task has been to drain the water that floods the wells and makes the rescue impossible.

Progress has been slow due to the huge volume of liquid in the tunnels.

According to data from the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), on Tuesday the level was 10.4 meters high in well one, 11.3 meters in well two and 16.4 meters in well three.

The three wells in which the 10 trapped miners worked were only a few meters from the Las Conchas mine, an operation abandoned almost 40 years ago and filled with water due to its proximity to the Sabinas River.

On Wednesday, the channel made its way through the cracks in the tunnels and caused the collapse.

Draining the water became the biggest obstacle.

The volume accumulated during the four decades of abandonment of Las Conchas was so massive that the machines extracted water, but it continued to filter from the disused mine.

On Monday, an underwater drone with a camera entered the wells and allowed to observe a “large amount of solid elements and turbulence”.

The experts concluded that, for the moment, there were no "conditions for the entry of search bodies," according to Sedena.

On Monday there was also the first attempt to lower an Army rescuer into the wells, although it ended after a few minutes.

The soldier was only able to extract wooden slats to the despair of the families of the trapped miners, who find it increasingly difficult to save the 10 men alive as the days go by.

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