Seven years after abolishing it, the region restored the service that might have prevented the disaster.
When five miners died in the Zarréu pit on March 31, 2025, Asturias was forced to confront a question it had quietly set aside six years earlier: what happens when the machinery of oversight is dismantled before the machinery underground fails. The regional government, which had absorbed its Mining Safety Service into a broader administrative merger in 2019, voted this week to restore it — a reversal that carries the weight of five lives and the political reckoning that followed. The decision is part of a wider recovery plan that pairs institutional reconstruction with criminal accountability, as four individuals face charges and a parliamentary commission examines how responsibility was distributed across the years between the service's abolition and the disaster.
- Five miners killed and four injured in a single underground accident transformed a regional administrative decision from 2019 into a matter of life, death, and political survival.
- The absence of a dedicated Mining Safety Service — merged away in a consolidation effort — now sits at the center of both criminal proceedings and a parliamentary investigation into who bears responsibility.
- Four people, including the mine's owner, his family members, and the facility's safety director, face charges of negligent homicide, injury, and violation of workers' rights.
- The regional cabinet has voted to restore the Safety Service within a restructured Energy and Mining Directorate, implementing recommendations from an official post-disaster inspection report.
- New tools — unannounced inspections, digital work-plan submissions, automated accident data processing, and an updated mining cadastre — are being built into the restored oversight framework.
- Whether reformed bureaucracy and criminal accountability together can prevent the next catastrophe remains the open and uneasy question hanging over Asturias's mining communities.
On the last day of March 2025, five miners died in the Zarréu pit in Degaña, Asturias. Four others were injured. The accident broke families and plunged the region into mourning, but it also exposed something structural: in 2019, the socialist government of Adrián Barbón had eliminated the regional Mining Safety Service as part of an administrative consolidation. Seven years later, the consequences of that decision were impossible to ignore.
This week, the cabinet voted to reverse course. The Mining Safety Service will be restored, embedded within a restructured Energy and Mining Directorate that will now house four specialized units. The restored service will carry real authority — conducting unannounced inspections, issuing safety certifications, coordinating training, and designing inspection schedules. The move implements recommendations from an official inspection report commissioned after the disaster and forms the core of the government's Regenera Plan, a four-part recovery effort covering regulatory reform, internal investigation, organizational restructuring, and interagency coordination.
The criminal dimension of the tragedy runs parallel. Four people face charges: the mine's owner, known as Chus Mirantes; his wife and son; and the facility's safety director at the time of the accident. Together they are accused of five counts of negligent homicide, four of injury, and one of violating workers' rights. A regional parliamentary commission is also examining political and administrative responsibility, though legal advisors have flagged potential constitutional problems with portions of its preliminary report.
Beyond the safety service itself, the Regenera Plan is advancing on multiple fronts — tighter oversight of mining rights transfers, a digitized system for companies to submit work plans, and automated processing of accident data. Additional court staff have been assigned to handle the criminal case in Cangas del Narcea. The government says it has not only adopted every recommendation from the inspection report but gone further. What the restored institution cannot yet answer is whether it will prove sufficient — and whether the years between the merger and the disaster will be fully accounted for.
On March 31, 2025, five miners died in the Zarréu pit in the Asturian municipality of Degaña. Four others were injured. The accident shattered families, cast the region into mourning, and detonated a political crisis that would reshape how Asturias oversees its mines.
The regional government, led by socialist Adrián Barbón, had eliminated its Mining Safety Service in 2019 as part of a broader consolidation of administrative functions. Seven years later, on Monday, the cabinet voted to restore it—a reversal born directly from the wreckage of Zarréu. The decision implements recommendations from an official inspection report commissioned after the disaster and forms the centerpiece of what the government calls its Regenera Plan, a four-part recovery effort announced in April.
Four people face criminal charges related to the accident: Jesús Rodríguez Morán, known as Chus Mirantes, who owns the mine; his wife Ana María Rodríguez; their son Adrián; and José Antonio Fernández Casillas, the facility's safety director at the time of the disaster. They are accused of five crimes: five counts of negligent homicide, four counts of injury, and one count of violating workers' rights. A separate investigation commission in the regional parliament is examining political and administrative responsibility for what happened, though legal advisors have warned that the commission's preliminary report may contain constitutional problems by naming specific officials for potential censure or removal.
The restoration of the Mining Safety Service requires restructuring within the Ministry of Science, Industry and Employment, overseen by Borja Sánchez. The Energy and Mining Directorate will now contain four separate services: the Mining Service, the newly restored Safety Service, an Energy Management Service, and a Renewable Energy and Efficiency Service. The Safety Service will assume responsibility for monitoring conditions in mines and extraction sites, conducting inspections, imposing sanctions, issuing safety certifications for certain professions, coordinating training programs, and designing inspection schedules. The government plans to begin developing an inspection program once the service's leadership position is filled.
The Regenera Plan extends beyond the safety service restoration. It encompasses four strategic areas: regulatory changes, internal investigations, organizational restructuring, and improved coordination within and between government agencies. Work is advancing on schedule. Instructions are being finalized to tighten oversight of complementary research projects and the transfer of mining rights. Specifications for a contract to update the mining cadastre have been drafted. New digital systems are being designed so companies can submit work plans electronically and so accident data can be processed automatically. These measures complement earlier steps taken since the Zarréu disaster: additional staff for the court in Cangas del Narcea, which is handling the criminal case, and the introduction of unannounced mine inspections.
The accident has forced a reckoning with how the region manages industrial risk. The government says it has not only adopted all the inspection service's recommendations but expanded them with additional commitments. What remains to be seen is whether the restored bureaucracy, armed with new digital tools and unannounced inspections, can prevent another catastrophe—and whether the criminal proceedings and parliamentary investigation will establish where responsibility truly lay.
Citações Notáveis
The government not only adopted all the inspection service's recommendations but expanded them with additional commitments— Asturian government statement
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did Asturias shut down this safety service in the first place, back in 2019?
It was part of a broader consolidation when Barbón's first government took office. They merged services to streamline the administration. At the time, it probably seemed like an efficiency move. No one predicted what would happen at Zarréu.
And now they're reversing it. Is that just political theater, or does the service actually do something substantive?
It's not theater. The service conducts inspections, certifies workers in safety roles, coordinates training, and enforces regulations. When it was gone, those functions were absorbed into other departments—diluted, essentially. The inspection report made clear that the fragmentation mattered.
What about the criminal case? Are the charges serious?
Very. Negligent homicide, injury, violation of workers' rights. The mine owner, his family, and the safety director are all implicated. The court in Cangas del Narcea is moving forward with the investigation.
The parliament is also investigating. What's that about?
They're trying to determine whether political decisions or administrative failures contributed to the accident. But there's a legal problem—the preliminary report names specific officials for potential censure, and the parliament's own legal counsel warned that could be unconstitutional.
So the government is trying to fix the system while also being investigated for how the system failed?
Exactly. They're implementing reforms, but they're also potentially liable for decisions made years ago. It's a delicate position.
What does the digital piece do?
Companies will submit work plans online instead of on paper, and accident data will be processed automatically. It's meant to create a clearer, faster record of what's happening in the mines—harder to hide problems.