Union Leader Blames BP for His Torture
Tuesday, February 28, 2012Last Update: 6:40 AM PT
Union Leader Blames BP for His Torture
By RYAN ABBOTT
WASHINGTON (CN) - An oil worker and union leader claims right-wing death squads kidnapped and tortured him in Colombia at the behest of British oil giant BP. Gilberto Edgar Torres Martinez, who now lives in Spain, sued BP in Federal Court.
Torres claims BP recklessly hired the paramilitary thugs to protect its Colombian pipeline, and violated the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victims Protection Act by allowing them to falsely accuse him of being a guerilla and torture him.
The death squads, known as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), or Colombians United in Self-Defense, were "integrated into" the Colombian National Army, which BP paid off for years, Torres says in his complaint.
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Torres says he started receiving threatening calls in 2002, from people who called him a guerrilla and a communist. He says it was because he had been identified as "a leader in the labor rights movement" while working for Colombia's gas corporation Ecopetrol, and serving as a leader for the largest union in Colombia's petroleum industry.
More:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/28/44232.htm
