International rescue teams managed to locate a Mexican fisherman alive after he went missing for over two weeks at a depth exceeding 100 meters inside a flooded sinkhole (cenote) in the state of Veracruz.
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Erasto Crisanto Valdez, 31, went missing on July 23 while fishing with his father in a cenote near San Francisco La Paz. Six days into the search, rescuers recovered only his spear, leading them to presume him dead and prepare for a body recovery operation, according to Russia Today.
However, the unexpected occurred last Thursday when a joint rescue team—comprising explorers from Mexico, Germany, the United States, and the Dominican Republic—found him alive inside a pitch-black cave pocket that contained an air pocket, despite weeks of exposure to cold and high humidity.
Mexican explorer Carlos Jiménez described the incident as a miracle. In his first public statement following the rescue, Valdez expressed his gratitude, saying: "I thank God for giving me another chance to see my children and family again. It is an unbelievable miracle."
Upon being extracted on a stretcher, Valdez was found to be suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition due to the complete lack of food throughout his ordeal. He was immediately transported to a hospital in his hometown of Oxapanapa to receive medical treatment.
Cenotes are deep, natural sinkholes formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock. Rescue operations in these environments are notoriously complex due to their extreme depths and harsh conditions.
In a similar incident, the same rescue team previously saved five villagers from a flooded cave in Laos after they were trapped by landslides, though two others remained missing. The team also contributed to the high-profile rescue of the Thai youth soccer team from the Tham Luang cave in 2018.
