The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has assured this Thursday in a press conference that it has no commercial relationship with the coal-producing mine of the Micarán company, which registered a collapse a few days ago with a balance of seven dead miners.
due to the fact that it is an activity of federal jurisdiction, and the national electricity company and its director Manuel Bartlett have a commercial relationship with the operator of the mine located in Múzquiz.
But the national company assures that Micarán, the owner and operator of the mine, is not within the list of suppliers that it outlined at the beginning of the six-year term, when it terminated a series of coal supply contracts – including some with the company. Altos Hornos– and undertook new awards to other producing companies in Coahuila.
Miguel López López, CFE’s Deputy Director of Contracting and Services, defended that as part of a presidential policy to support small coal producers, the national company conducted a survey among the producing companies of Coahuila to determine their new suppliers, in the that they left out companies that did not meet certain standards, one of them related to the safety of their workers.
The survey, in which the CFE’s reliable suppliers were selected, was carried out in conjunction with the Ministry of Labor, the undersecretary of Mines of the Ministry of Economy and the National Geological Service, the official explained.
In July of last year, in this purchase, López insisted, the Micarán company was left out because the conditions of the mine represented a risk for the workers.
“The mining works are located on a slope of an old pit at a depth of 18 meters. This type of mining is of high risk for workers if there is no good ventilation of the mining works, constant records of the presence of gas. It is considered that the company cannot operate without complying with all of the above, so it is essential that a prior authorization be requested from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare ”, reads a document issued by the Mexican Geological Service , which carried out a series of evaluations to the companies and presented by the CFE administration this afternoon at its conference.
But while the CFE has assured that the purchases of coal from the producing region of Coahuila have benefited small producers, the governor of the entity has accused director Bartlett of causing a serious crisis in the coal-producing region of the state.
“What has happened for years, before this instruction to buy from small producers, was the monopoly of a few, of an enriched elite (…). It is clear that those who are trying to establish responsibilities to the CFE are the enemies of the social program, they are the outraged because a few no longer have a monopoly, “said Bartlett.
