It was a “great idea of Manuel Bartlett’s to give more coal to the smaller producers and less coal to the larger producers, (which) causes a coyotaje that in the end ends up in the exploitation of wells without the necessary security to be able to take care of of the lives of the workers”, he explained.
“That of giving small producers more extraction and suddenly it was not viable, but they should have been encouraged to grow and capitalize little by little, to invest in security, incorporate their workers into Social Security, put in more shifts, little by little. little, and I’m not saying that today, I said it from the beginning,” he recalled.
But he maintained that he did not want to enter into conflict with the CFE, which is why the state stepped aside.
“The turn that the head of the CFE gave at the time made the participation of the state to one side in the issue of coal, as long as they gave orders to the people because they were already economically drowned, economically asphyxiated and that Well, I was also not going to get into a political dispute where coal orders were further delayed, right?” he said.
Now, after the disaster at the El Pinabete mine in Sabinas, where 10 miners have been trapped for 12 days, Riquelme admitted that rescuing them is the priority.
“The would not exist,” he said. He then admitted that more coordination between the federation and the state government is required for the future.
Both authorities must, said the president, inspect the working conditions of the miners on a permanent basis and not only before the assignment of production contracts.
