The storm passed with such fury and speed that there was no time for anything in the mining camp in the village of La Antigua de Abriaqui. Then the darkness was complete. Chaos and despair.
That is why yesterday the unbeliever was not lacking who still did not imagine that what had always been a trickle of water was capable of taking the lives of 12 miners. Two others have not appeared.
Ten more managed to slip away despite their injuries and were able to raise the alarm. In that camp, nestled between the mountain range, 100 miners worked. By chance, when the avalanche came down following 6:30 at night, the shift had already ended and there were few left packing their backpacks..
The request for help was spread in the region and that is why More than 200 inhabitants of Abriaquí and the neighboring municipality of Frontino undertook the road to support the search for Eliécer Ortiz and Jesús Cruz, the two that the ravine swallowed. The rescue was joined by 22 rescuers from the Red Cross, Civil Defense and Mining Rescue.
With shovels, picks, machetes and even an electric circular saw, those gathered took on the task of looking for their missing companions. It did not matter that they had to travel regarding 20 kilometers of unpaved roads, nor that they had to walk another 45 minutes uphill to the minealong the path that did not affect the force of the water and in which the mud often threatened to swallow the boots.
They also did not care that they had to cross two sections of the creek hanging from a couple of ropes. “The house of the mine was full of mud, everything collapsed or the water washed away”, is how Emerson Arenas described the panorama that remained in the mine, attached to the company R and C Gold, following the water swept away everything.
The followingnoon of the tragedy
According to Rubén Londoño, one of the El Porvenir workers who was saved by leaving the mine three hours before the tragedy, the incident occurred prior to the miners’ mealtime.
Natalia Escobar, another of the workers at El Porvenir, narrated thathe absolute darkness left behind by the growing anguish increased the anguish of the survivors, who tried to find their friends and companions, provided only with the light of their cell phones.
Barely at 8:00 at night, those who were left alive, filled with swamp up to above the waist, were able to realize what had happened: tragedy and death had reached El Porvenir.
One of these improvised rescuers was Santiago Cardona, a relative of one of the victims, who, with eyes glassy from fatigue, or perhaps from shock, recounted how he had spent the last 14 hours of his life.
“I’ve been here since 10:00 at night, right. I have helped to get the 12 dead to the bottom, but I have been aware of those who remained above, and I am raising and lowering food for those of us who remain “.
As the hours passed, the corpses sprouted. Then the community moved them to an area with better access, but the conditions in which they were left did not allow their relatives to recognize them. It will be the Prosecutor’s Office that assumes the task and determines his identification at the local hospital in Frontino.
a gloomy dawn
When the new day arrived, the pilgrimage continued to grow. Among volunteers and relatives the number of attendees escalated, however, there was no crying: only tired and worried faces. Silent pain.
A sancocho gave new strength to continue the searchbut the heavy rains reported by the authorities from Abriaquí caused the work to be definitively suspended. The police had to convince the rescuers to finally leave the area.
Dressed in a yellow raincoat, only Don Rubén remained, taking care of the little that the water left behind. The search for Ortiz and “Chucho” is expected to continue today. They had been working in the mine for a year and two months. and they were natives of La Antigua and its neighbor, the village of Potreritos.
According to the mayor of Abriaquí, Héctor Orrego Quirós, there is already some certainty of the last place where the two men were seen. The arrival of a backhoe in the area provides hope that the bodies will be found today.
In Frontino you feel an air of sadness that, from time to time, is interrupted by vallenatos and meringues that escape to the walls of one of the taverns in the town center. They sound while a persistent rain makes one think with distrust of that trickle of water that was capable of mourning two municipalities in a single day.
