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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Group: Standards Not Met at Mexican Mine
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
| | Last month, rescuers recovered the first body of those killed while removing debris from a mine shaft. But efforts to recover other remains have been slowed by dangerous gases within the mine. |
Mexico's Labor Department failed to ensure that conditions inside a coal mine met safety standards before a February explosion killed 65 miners, the National Human Rights Commission said Monday.
Investigations conducted by the commission, a governmental organization which operates autonomously, stopped short of blaming the labor department, but said it tolerated carelessness and neglect from those officials assigned to ensuring the Pasta de Conchos mine was safe.
Federal authorities "had full knowledge the working conditions of the mine where the catastrophe occurred infringed on security standards," the commission said in a statement.
The miners died in an underground gas explosion on Feb. 19 in Coahuila state, 85 miles southwest of the Mexico-U.S. border at Eagle Pass, Texas.
Federal officials knew of problems with lighting and underground signal systems, gas and oil leaks, safety and pressure valves and a faulty smoke-release system but never ensured they were corrected, the commission said.
In July 2004, Labor Department officials inspected Pasta de Conchos and found 48 problems that the company operating the mine was ordered to fix, the commission said.
None of the problems were corrected, and the Labor Department did not express concern about the company's failure to comply until September 2005, it said.
The commission said work to fix them didn't begin until Feb. 7 — 12 days before the explosion.
The commission also faulted mine operators and the government for failing to recover the bodies of those killed in a timely fashion, saying that the inability to do so had violated the rights of their relatives.
Last month, rescuers recovered the first body of those killed while removing debris from a mine shaft. But efforts to recover other remains have been slowed by dangerous gases within the mine. |
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