Rescue teams in Costa Rica pulled the bodies of two young Nicaraguan men from a deep tunnel in an illegal gold mine in Crucitas, San Carlos canton, after a grueling operation that lasted over 15 hours. The men, identified as Wayner Hilander Sequeira GarcÃa, 24, and Nicolás Daniel Orozco GarcÃa, 20, were brothers from El Castillo in Nicaragua’s RÃo San Juan department. Their father arrived at the site to identify them, adding a heartbreaking layer to the scene.
The incident unfolded early Tuesday when reports came in around 7:30 a.m. of people trapped in a makeshift tunnel at Cerro Fortuna in Crucitas. Firefighters and Red Cross workers rushed in, facing a narrow 80-centimeter-wide entrance and unstable ground made worse by rain.
They used specialized cameras to scan the site and ruled out any other trapped individuals. The tunnel stretched more than 40 meters deep, and rescuers had to haul the bodies out manually over rough terrain spanning about 500 meters, relying on vertical rescue gear.
By early Wednesday, around 2:30 a.m., teams recovered the first body, followed by the second at 4:30 a.m. More than 20 people took part in the effort, including firefighters, Red Cross staff, and police officers who secured the area for safety. The bodies went to the Judicial Morgue for autopsies by the Organismo de Investigación Judicial to determine the exact cause of death, though initial signs point to being buried alive or suffocation in the cramped, unsafe space.
These men worked as “coligalleros,” a term for informal miners who dig in hazardous, unregulated tunnels for gold. Crucitas has long drawn such workers, mostly migrants from Nicaragua chasing limited job options back home.
The area, once eyed for a large-scale open-pit mine that got shut down in 2010 over environmental concerns, now hosts rampant illegal operations spanning over 900 hectares. These activities have wrecked local ecosystems with mercury pollution and sparked social issues like increased crime along the border.
This tragedy marks the latest in a string of deaths tied to mining in Costa Rica. In the past 18 months alone, five miners have lost their lives, including a young Nicaraguan in a Crucitas collapse back in March 2024 and three others in Abangares, Guanacaste.
Police have ramped up raids, recently nabbing 12 Nicaraguans and seizing tools like drills and shovels, but the vast terrain makes full control tough. Some reports suggest the brothers may have been abandoned during a police sweep as others fled.
Public Security Minister Mario Zamora has called the situation in Crucitas a “persistent problem” that drains resources. He backs a push for a state of emergency, sparked by a motion from the San Carlos Municipal Council earlier this week.
Councilman Juan Pablo RodrÃguez, who put forward the idea, aims to secure more funding to tackle border insecurity and the influx of illegal miners. Zamora notes that policing the 3,000-hectare zone would require pulling officers from half the country’s stations, highlighting the scale of the challenge.
Families and communities on both sides of the border feel the toll. For many like the Sequeira and Orozco brothers, the promise of gold outweighs the dangers, but incidents like this show the heavy price. Authorities continue to monitor the site, urging people to steer clear of these risky spots. As investigations wrap up, calls grow louder for stronger measures to curb the illegal trade that’s claiming lives and harming the land.
