Mexico City, 26 February 2015.- Pasta de Conchos Family Organization realized their ninth memorial in Mexico City on February 19th. Like every year, the event took place simultaneously in front of the offices of “Grupo México” in the federal district and in the parking lot of the mine, in Coahuila. With the activities, the organization seeks to raise the awareness of a number of political actors about the demands to rescue the buried miners, and, at the same time, to draw the attention to the social, environmental and labor conditions in Coahuila´s coal region. The organization has documented various cases of violations committed by mining companies working in the area.

19 February 2006, around two o´clock in the morning, an explosion in the carbon Mine number 8 of the Pasta de Conchos unit, in San Juan de Sabinas in Coahuila, left sixty-five miners trapped. To this day, 63 of them are still buried in the mine, leaving their family members without the possibility of giving them a proper funeral. Consequently, one of the largest mining tragedies in Mexican history continues without any closure (the documentary ´Voices from the underground' (Voces del subterraneo in Spanish) tells the story of the Pasta de Conchos disaster).

After years demanding the rescue and several expert reports considering the recovery of the miners viable, in 2014 the Federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) of Mexico carried out another investigation to assess the possibility of a rescue. Subsequently, the PGR reckoned the feasibility of the rescue operation but the initiative was blocked again, this time by federal judges. Notwithstanding, in February 2010, the Pasta de Conchos Family organization sent the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and is waiting for its admission.

The Pasta de Conchos Family Organization, funded after the tragedy in 2006, has been demanding for over nine years for the rescue of the bodies of the 63 miners and that the authorities identify and sanction the actors responsible for the disaster. It accompanies family members of the miners deceased in the Pasta de Conchos tragedy, gives assistance in legal matters and offers help to family members and survivors of other mining tragedies, for example the disaster on 3 May 2011 when 14 miners died after an explosion in a mine of the BINSA company in Sabinas. As a part of their activities, the organization also manages a nursery for chili peppers thus offering employment alternatives to handicapped miners and miners who have survived accidents.

As a result of their work, the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization and her director, Cristina Auerbach, have suffered various incidents, among which a case of harassment during a commemoration of the tragedy of 3 May 2011, and an intent to break into the house of Cristina Auerbach. Due to her high risk situation, the Interior Ministry (Segob) issued her protection measures through the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. Since 2014 PBI accompanies the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization and Cristina Auerbach and regularly visits the carbon zone, a region that both PBI and the United Nations have considered a high risk zone for human rights defenders.

On this occasion, PBI expresses great concern over the risk situation faced by the members of he Pasta de Conchos Family Organization and, especially, its director, Cristina Auerbach. Likewise, PBI requests authorities of Coahuila to publicly recognize the legitimacy and importance of the work developed by the organization.