Mexico City, 19 February 2015.– 10 years ago today, on February 19, 2006, an enormous explosion left 65 miners trapped in the Mine no. 8 of the Pasta de Conchos Unit of “Grupo Mexico”´s coal mine in Coahuila. In the years following the disaster, family members of the victims have come together to highlight the precarious working conditions in the area and to demand the retrieval of their bodies of their loved ones (only two bodies have been retrieved to date).

Human Rights Defender Cristina Auerbach joined forces with the families to create the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization, which has been fighting for justice for 10 years. The members of the organisation expressed their concerns today in front of the headquarters of “Grupo México”, demanding the retrieval of the bodies and the identification and punishment of those responsible for the disaster.

In addition to demanding the retrieval of the bodies trapped underground in the 2006 disaster, today the organisation also documents numerous cases of workplace accidents in the coal mining zone of Coahuila. Because of the work they carry out, members of the organisation have received threats and have been harassed on various occasions. Auerbach, the director of the group, has already been beaten, threatened, and slandered. Due to her high level of risk, she has been granted protective measures from the Federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists and was also received by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for a hearing in which she spoke about the situation of women human rights defenders and environmental issues.

PBI has accompanied the Pasta de Conchos Family Organisation and Cristina Auerbach since 2014 by visiting the coal mining zone regularly and conveying international concern over the security of the members of the organisation to state and federal authorities.