Santo Domingo.- A family was devastated after the death of Eloy Peña, who lost his life crushed by a collapse in a mine chigger. His wife, Alexandra Morván, and their four children now face the pain of losing the pillar of their home.
Morván remembers her husband as a hardworking, happy and loving man, who loved children, animals and his community in Old Mothersector where they resided, in the San Cristóbal province.
“My husband was a kind man, very affectionate with everyone. He loved children, animals, his neighbors. He was a very good person,” Alexandra said, her voice breaking.
Eloy Peña, 55, was a backhoe operator, a job he carried out with passion, although his wife was always worried about the risks it involved.
“I didn’t sleep peacefully. I told him that I felt uneasy with him there,” Morván confessed.
an unfinished dream
The deceased’s goal was to finish the house they were building together to retire from the mine. Only plumbing and electrical details were missing, the completion of which was scheduled for this month.
“He promised me that when we finished the house he would leave that job. He asked me for just two more weeks. They didn’t happen,” she recalled through tears.
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The man leaves four children, who adored him deeply. “My children loved him more than me. It was a beautiful love, a healthy love,” said his wife.
Dangerous conditions and negligence
Morván denounced that the mine lacked minimum safety conditions. According to her, her husband did not have medical insurance or the necessary protective equipment, and there were no personnel in charge of monitoring the land to warn of possible landslides.
“When a landslide is about to fall, sand begins to fall. If there is someone watching, they give the alert and everyone leaves. That day there was no one. Only him and a truck driver,” he explained.
Although Eloy Peña managed to get out of the machine where he was working and tried to run, he was hit by the collapse. His body was recovered after about 13 hours of searching. “If so many hours had not passed, perhaps they would have gotten him out alive,” lamented his wife.
Morván recognized the subsequent work of relief organizations such as Civil Defense, Red Cross and Firefighters, but criticized that the initial response was late and that the lack of supervision directly contributed to the tragedy.
It was not the first time that Eloy faced collapses at work, but he had always managed to survive. “This time he didn’t make it. The third time was the charm,” he said.
Heartbroken, Alexandra concluded by remembering Eloy Peña as the man who treated her like his child and asked that justice be done: “I lost the love of my life due to negligence. I hope this does not go unpunished and that measures are taken so that it does not happen to anyone else.”
