On Tuesday, the seventh anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) announced that it will begin inspecting the site in an effort to recover the bodies of the miners who died in the 2006 accident.
On Feb. 19, 2006, at about 2:30 a.m., an explosion rocked the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila, killing 65 people. The mine is owned by Grupo México, the country’s largest mining company. Of the 65 miners buried in the blast, only two bodies were ever recovered.
Now the Labor Secretariat (STPS) has ordered a new investigation, and Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said on Tuesday that it will determine whether or not it will be possible to recover the bodies.
Navarrete Prida said that “in starting a new investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, we can discover the exact technical conditions of the mine at the time and now. This will tell us what the new administration can or cannot do about the situation. “The federal government and President Enrique Peña Nieto express once more their condolences to the families of those miners for the tragedy that occurred several years ago.”
The new investigation comes as members of The National Mining and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMSRM) gathered around the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City yesterday to commemorate the anniversary of the explosion and demand justice for the families of those killed in the disaster.
At the time of the disaster, the union leader Napoleón Gómez Sada accused the federal government of colluding with Grupo México to block a thorough investigation of the site, which miners had complained was unsafe.
Navarrete Prida said that more than 200 mining operations have been inspected since December 2012.
He added that the STPS was working with federal and state authorities to determine if the Pasta de Conchos explosion was related to organized crime.
“We want to make sure coal mines, to which there is no economic alternative, are places where conditions are adequate for workers,” he said.
Wednesday 20 February 2013
http://www.thenews.com.mx/index.php/mexico-articulos/6382-%E2%80%98bodies-must-be-recovered%E2%80%99
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