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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged on Wednesday to recover the more than 60 remaining bodies of miners killed in a massive coal shaft explosion in 2006, a mission he described as a humanitarian promise made to victims’ families.
The announcement came on Mexico’s Labor Day holiday, and Lopez Obrador said he did not expect the company that operated the mine to oppose him.
“This is an act of justice and it’s also a commitment we made going back a long time,” the president told reporters at his regular morning news conference.
He did not put a price tag on the mission, saying that “whatever is necessary” would be spent.
“This is an act of justice and it’s also a commitment we made going back a long time”
The Pasta de Conchos mine blast took place in northern Coahuila state, near Mexico’s border with Texas.
The mine was operated by Grupo Mexico, one of Latin America’s largest miners. The company has maintained that the blast was an unfortunate accident and said it has compensated families, spending some $30 million on trying to find the 63 remaining miners.
Grupo Mexico did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after the explosion, just two bodies were recovered. The incident provoked bitter recriminations that have lingered.
A special prosecutor for the case blamed Grupo Mexico for allowing a deadly mix of methane, heat and oxygen to build up in the mine, failing to build proper ventilation shafts or to neutralize explosive coal dust. Government inspectors who failed to enforce the necessary safety precautions were also implicated.
Lopez Obrador said the recovery effort would begin soon, and that German Larrea, the head of Grupo Mexico and one of Mexico’s richest billionaires, had been sought out but that this was a government decision.
“If (Larrea) helps, that’s welcome. If he doesn’t help this is something we will do,” said Lopez Obrador, who has clashed in the past with the reclusive tycoon.
In the moments following the blast, the workers were likely buried by thousands of tons of rock, making it very difficult to reach their bodies.
Investigators later determined that it was possible that many of the men were incinerated as the explosion sent temperatures soaring to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (593 Celsius).
In the years since the incident, concerns have been raised about the danger to potential rescue workers that any further attempts to recover the bodies would entail.
(By David Alire Garcia and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
