Chinese Coal Mine Blast Kills 19, Traps Dozens

XINHUA (China), BBC NEWS (UK)

An explosion in a coal mine in southwest China has killed 19 people and left 28 trapped, reports Chinese news agency Xinhua.

According to state media, rescue efforts are still underway to rescue the remaining miners, reports BBC News.

The accident occurred Wednesday at around 6 p.m. at Xiojiawan Coal Mine in the province of Sichuan.

154 people were working underground when a gas explosion struck the mine (watch footage of the explosion below).

According to Xinhua, the mine belongs to Zhengjin Industrial and Trade Co., Ltd. in Panzhihua.

The owner of the mine has been taken into police custody and the authority launched an investigation.

Safety rules are often ignored in China, a country that has an estimated 12,000 coal mines. Last year, 1,973 people were killed in mining accidents.

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Migrant Lives

Migration

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

David Peinado via Zuma Press

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.