Mexican authorities have announced a new plan to remove the 10 miners who have been trapped for 12 days in the El Pinabete mine, in Sabinas, Coahuila, without their relatives knowing about them and when hopes of finding them alive diminish.
The rescue in the coal mine scheduled for this weekend was complicated by a new flood that forced the immersion of specialist divers from the Mexican Navy to be postponed.
Water from the Sabinas river leaked back into the tunnel system after the collapse of a wall at the neighboring abandoned Conchas Norte mine, reported the national coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez.
[These are the 10 miners trapped in a Coahuila mine for eight days]
Rescuers work in the mine where 10 miners are trapped in the municipality of Sabinas, Coahuila, on August 13, 2022. EFE
“At 4 a.m. Central Time, we had 1 meter 30 centimeters of water level and we were preparing to enter through well 2, but this flash flood stopped the entire entry plan and we had to give way to another plan”, indicated the official in the morning press conference of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The new strategy contemplates continuing to remove the water permanently with high-power pumps, but also identifying areas with cavities or empty spaces to drill 20 6-inch holes to a depth of 60 meters in the abandoned Conchas Norte mine, where they intend to inject cement to create a barrier that prevents the passage of water between the mines, according to Velázquez.
Due to heavy rains in the area, family members had to leave the camp they had set up near the mine while they waited for the rescue of the 10 trapped workers.
Behind them they left tents, chairs and a campaign house abandoned in the quagmire
, according to the Telemundo News cameras.
Torrential rains interrupt the rescue of trapped miners in Coahuila
Aug. 15, 202202:09
They demand international help
The families have reacted impatiently to the delays in the rescue operation.
On Saturday, after complaining about the slowness of the Mexican authorities, they demanded that international teams be allowed to enter to help with the work.
López Obrador affirmed this Monday that he is analyzing the possibility of requesting help from international rescuers.
“It is not ruled out (the help of international rescuers) everything that has to be done to get the miners out.
And the family is right, they love their relatives, ”she assured in her morning conference.
[“My heart says he is alive”: Relatives of the 10 miners trapped in Mexico hope to be rescued alive]
He stated that the procedures to request the help of foreign rescue teams would not be difficult.
"Fortunately, we have good relations with the governments of the world and we can do those procedures," she said.
Although he clarified that before asking for help one has to "see if it is necessary", "if the strategy that is being followed is going to work".
The collapse at the beginning of the month revives the controversy over irregular mining operations in the Coahuila coal region, an area where more than 100 workers have died in mining-related accidents in the last fifteen years, according to the organization Familia Pasta de Conchos. , which brings together relatives of those who died in the 2006 collapse at the mine of that name.
With information from
EFE.
