Twelve years after the Pasta de Conchos tragedy that caused the death of 65 miners, IM-Defensoras and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders (RNDDHM) acknowledge the tireless work of defender Cristina Auerbach and the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization (OFPC) in their quest for truth and justice, and their commitment to workers’ rights in the mining communities of the state of Coahuila.

The OFPC emerged in 2006, after the collapse of the Pasta de Conchos coal mine operated by Grupo México. Since then, the Organization has documented the precarious conditions in which miners work, offenses committed by mining companies, and cases of accidents and injuries in Coahuila’s coal-mining industry. As a result, Director Cristina Auerbach, who also belongs to RNDDHM, has experienced a number of attacks at the behest of mining executives and authorities, and for this reason has been granted precautionary measures.