Exclusive-Mexico state utility bought coal from uninspected mines, including fatal site -records

By Jackie Botts

OAXACA CITY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexico’s state-owned energy utility has been shopping for coal from new mines that haven’t but been visited by labor inspectors, in keeping with a Reuters evaluation of coal contracts and inspection information, together with the mine the place 10 individuals died final month after flooding trapped them under floor.

Mexican regulation doesn’t require prior labor inspections for mines that offer Federal Electrical energy Fee (CFE). However the catastrophe on the El Pinabete mine, which triggered an enormous rescue effort that has but to retrieve the victims, highlights the hazards confronted by 1000’s of low-paid Mexican miners who work in slim, primitive mine shafts digging out coal with hand drills and shovels.

Many such mines have been heading in the direction of extinction till President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador introduced he would “rescue” each Mexico’s coal trade and CFE.

In a bid to extend the nation’s vitality independence and fight inequality, Lopez Obrador ordered CFE to purchase coal straight from small-scale producers within the northern border state of Coahuila, circumventing the standard bidding course of.

Researchers, activists and politicians have criticized the coverage for missing transparency, doubling down on soiled vitality manufacturing, and boosting primitive coal mines susceptible to deadly accidents.

“It ends in the exploitation of pits with out the mandatory security (measures) to have the ability to handle the employees’ lives,” mentioned Coahuila Governor Miguel Riquelme in an August press convention.

It additionally resulted in coal being purchased from mines that had not but been inspected by labor officers.

Of 67 corporations in Coahuila that CFE contracted in 2020 and 2021, no less than 30 had not been inspected by the Mexican Labor Secretary previous to receiving a contract, in keeping with inspections information of mines obtained by Reuters that date from 2016 by way of March 2022.

These 30 suppliers acquired just below a 3rd of the three.15 billion Mexican pesos ($157.38 million) that CFE awarded in coal contracts in 2020 and 2021.

The information present that labor inspectors visited most of these mines the 12 months after they acquired contracts. However three corporations have by no means been inspected.

Amongst them is El Pinabete, the place the catastrophe occurred, which acquired a contract from CFE in 2021 for 33.61 million pesos ($1.68 million) value of coal.

In response to a request for remark, a Labor Secretary spokesperson mentioned that they had by no means despatched inspectors to the El Pinabete mine as a result of they have been unaware the corporate operated there. The spokesperson added that inspectors had visited the 2 different mines, solely to search out that “on the time of the visits they have been out of operation.”

The Labor Secretary doesn’t become involved in CFE’s procurement course of, nor does it have the authorized energy to, the spokesperson mentioned.

Earlier than signing a contract, CFE requires coal corporations to declare below oath that they adjust to all mining security laws, however shouldn’t be required to take further steps to confirm.

CFE didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Nonetheless, in a July information convention, CFE Subdirector of Procurement Miguel Lopez mentioned the vitality firm required Coahuila coal mines to supply proof of a constructive ranking by the Secretary of Labor throughout a brand new spherical of coal contracts awarded to 52 mines this summer season. It’s unclear whether or not any of these mines lacked a security inspection earlier than receiving a contract, as a result of the information reviewed by Reuters don’t embody inspections previous March 2022.

Aleida Azamar, an Autonomous Metropolitan College professor who research the mining trade, mentioned CFE’s coverage has led harmful, small-scale coal mines to “sprout up in all places” within the coal area, inspiring locals to name them “milpas,” or cornfields.

In some instances, Azamar mentioned, beneficiaries of CFE contracts are literally distinguished coal corporations that registered new mines – typically dug in beforehand deserted mining zones – below borrowed names.

On the deadly El Pinabete mine, the identify of the person who was registered because the employer in Social Safety information, Cristian Solis, might have been used to hide the id of the true proprietor, President Lopez Obrador mentioned in an August press convention. Reuters was not capable of attain Solis for remark.

The Legal professional Common’s Workplace introduced on Sunday that it obtained arrest warrants for Solis and two others allegedly chargeable for “unlawful coal exploitation” on the mine.

($1 = 20.0149 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Jackie Botts; enhancing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Marguerita Choy)