Erasto Crisanto Valdéz was 31 years old when he disappeared while fishing with his father.
It was July 23, 2026, in a cenote in the jungle of Los Chimalapas, between Veracruz and Oaxaca. When his oxygen ran out at a depth of 65 meters, he was unable to reach the surface. Instead of giving up, he moved through the flooded cave system until he found an air-filled cavity, a kind of pocket of oxygen trapped beneath the rock, and there he remained, in cold, humidity, and total darkness, for 15 days.
The international team searching for him — Mexicans, Germans, Americans, and Dominicans — no longer expected to find him alive. Explorer Carlos Jiménez described it with a single word: miracle. Erasto emerged dehydrated and malnourished, but walking, and they put him in an ambulance that took him to the hospital.
In total darkness and without food, a fisherman survived 15 days trapped in a cenote in #Oaxaca at a depth of 100 meters. Thanks to an intense search operation, he was located. He himself recounted his story: @MendivilCrystal#NoticiasConNachoLozano#NoticiasImagen pic.twitter.com/Cz1QyzCPoT
— Imagen Televisión (@ImagenTVMex) August 12, 2026