Mexican authorities said Wednesday they have found some of the bodies of 63 miners who were trapped in a coal mine in northern Mexico 18 years ago.
The accident occurred at the Pasta de Conchos mine in the state of Coahuila, bordering Texas, on February 19, 2006. Of the 73 miners working there, eight survived despite sustaining severe burns, and two bodies were later found.
Two Mexican coal miners killed in illegal mine accident
The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that after years of searching, it had found the “first human remains” in one of the mine’s chambers, but did not say when the remains had been recovered.
The accident is considered one of the country’s largest mining accidents.
Pedestrians walk past a bright red sculpture of the number 65, paying tribute to miners killed in the 2006 Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Mexico City, Mexico, on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Authorities announced that some remains have been found among 63 miners who had been missing for nearly two decades. Sixty-five miners were killed in the explosion, but authorities have only found the remains of two. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
The process of recovering the bodies only began in 2020, when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised to do so. Three successive administrations abandoned the effort, calling it dangerous, expensive and with no guarantee of success. But victims’ families continued to press authorities on the issue for years.
President Lopez Obrador has given the country’s public utility, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), responsibility for the excavation work of digging and burning coal to deliver long-buried coal to miners.
The Interior Ministry said 13 miners had been working in the room where the bodies were found on the day of the accident.
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The government indicated it was not yet clear whether the explosion caused the mine collapse.
The Coahuila State Prosecutor’s Office, in collaboration with the National Commission of Investigation and the National Institute of Genomic Medicine, will begin analyzing the remains to confirm their identity and determine the cause of the accident.
