Drummond's Colombia rights trial begins in Alabama (2001 deaths of the three union leaders )

[Omaha Steve]

Source: reuters

By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - U.S. coal company Drummond went on trial on Monday on charges it paid right-wing paramilitary gunmen to kill union leaders at a mine it operates in a war-torn corner of northern Colombia.

The trial began with jury selection in a case that could help set a precedent for U.S. companies accused of human rights violations abroad.

Privately-held and Alabama-based Drummond Company Inc. has denied involvement in the 2001 deaths of the three union leaders near the sprawling open pit mine it operates in Colombia.

The lawsuit was filed by the International Labor Rights Fund and Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers union in March 2002 and seeks unspecified damages on behalf of the dead union leaders' families.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN7928491520070709

[Judi Lynn]

1. Drummond's Colombia rights trial begins in Alabama (hired murder of union workers)

Source: Reuters

Drummond's Colombia rights trial begins in Alabama
Mon Jul 9, 2007 6:50PM EDT
By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - U.S. coal company Drummond went on trial on Monday on charges it paid right-wing paramilitary gunmen to kill union leaders at a mine it operates in a war-torn corner of northern Colombia.

The trial began with jury selection in a case that could help set a precedent for U.S. companies accused of human rights violations abroad.

Privately-held and Alabama-based Drummond Company Inc. has denied involvement in the 2001 deaths of the three union leaders near the sprawling open pit mine it operates in Colombia.
(snip)

Masked gunmen forced Colombian union leaders Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler off buses and killed them in 2001. The three Drummond employees had argued with the mining company over wage and safety issues.

Four witnesses have come forward claiming Drummond gave cash and cars to paramilitary fighters in exchange for killing the men.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN7928491520070709

[Judi Lynn]

2. RIGHTS: Abuses in Colombia on Trial in U.S. (Chiquita,Drummond hired murders of Union workers)

RIGHTS: Abuses in Colombia on Trial in U.S.
By Barin Masoud

NEW YORK, Jul 9 (IPS) - Two U.S. corporations that have operated in Colombia -- Chiquita Brands International and Drummond Company Inc. -- stand accused of aiding far-right paramilitary groups with alleged ties to the Colombian government.

They are facing charges in two separate civil lawsuits filed in U.S. district courts by plaintiffs seeking justice for human rights abuses through the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allow foreigners to sue in U.S. courts on issues of internationally recognised human rights violations.

Chiquita Brands International, the banana giant based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is being sued for its alleged role in the murders of nearly two dozen Colombian workers killed by paramilitary groups between 1997 and 2004. Drummond Company, a major coal producer based in Birmingham, Alabama, is facing similar charges of complicity in the murders of three trade union leaders near a Drummond mine in La Loma, Colombia in 2001. That trial is set to begin on Monday.

Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty in March to allegations that company officials made payments to paramilitary and guerrilla groups, including the right-wing United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). The company agreed to pay 25 million dollars in a settlement case investigated by the U.S. Justice Department. Chiquita, which sold its Colombia operations three years ago, maintains that it paid the group in an effort to "protect" its employees.

It is estimated that over 4,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in the past two decades, according to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Centre.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38473

("Human rights abuses" is such a euphemism considering the abuses involved murders of workers, and stealing their lives from them, and the workers from their loved ones.)

[ProudDad]

3. K&R

"Human Rights Abuses" == Corporate Sponsored Murder...

[nealmhughes]

4. Heaven help Drumman with a N. District of Alabama Jury, some of the largest

torts have been set by this district. Alabama is notorious for going hard on corporate misdoing. . . add in murder for hire against working people by corporate stooges. . . sounds like a dream jury for the prosecutor. Unless the defense manages to vett every single Democrat and person of color and former or present union member in North Alabama, which will be quite hard to do.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Alabama coal company accused of bankrolling Colombia's killer right-wing militias

Alabama coal company accused of bankrolling Colombia's killer right-wing militias
The Associated Press
Published: July 6, 2007

LA LOMA, Colombia: The bus had just left Drummond Co. Inc.'s coal mine carrying about 50 workers when gunmen halted it and forced two union leaders off. They shot one on the spot, pumping four bullets into his head, and dragged the other one off to be tortured and killed.

In a civil trial set to begin Monday before a federal jury in Birmingham, Ala., union lawyers have presented affidavits from two people who allege that Drummond ordered those killings, a charge the company denies.

The Chiquita banana company admitted paying right-wing militias known as paramilitaries to protect its Colombia operations. Human rights activists claim such practices were widespread among multinationals in Colombia, and that Drummond went even further, using the fighters to violently keep its labor costs down.

The Drummond case, they say, is their best chance yet of seeing those allegations heard in court.

The union has presented affidavits to the Alabama court from two people who say they were present when Drummond's chief executive in Colombia, Augusto Jimenez, handed over a large sum of cash to representatives of the local paramilitary warlord. They claim the money was for the March 10, 2001, killings of Sintramienergetica union local president Valmore Locarno and his deputy, Victor Orcasita.

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/07/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Coal-Murders.php

[Judi Lynn]

5. Jury Being Chosen in Colombian Mine Case

Jury Being Chosen in Colombian Mine Case
By JAY REEVES 07.09.07, 3:37 PM ET

Jury selection began Monday in a lawsuit accusing the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co. Inc. of hiring right-wing paramilitaries to kill three union activists working at its mine in Colombia in 2001.

The civil case is believed to be the first to come to trial under a seldom-used U.S. law that dates back nearly two centuries and lets foreigners sue U.S. corporations for their conduct abroad.

Potential jurors met behind closed doors with lawyers and the judge to fill out questionnaires seeking personal information. Court officials said they would return Tuesday for additional questioning.

Outside, police dispersed a handful of demonstrators carrying anti-Drummond and anti-war signs after they approached the courthouse doors. No one was arrested.

More:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/09/ap3895712.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Alabama to Colombia - Drummond's "Trail of Tears"

UNION MINERS FACE DANGER IN COLOMBIA


When union activists Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita boarded a company-chartered bus after leaving work at Drummond's La Loma coal mine in Colombia, they didn't realize it was their last ride. The local's president and vice president were pulled from the bus and executed by gunmen, some wearing military uniforms, in front of their fellow miners.
"These brutal murders in March underscore the danger facing labor leaders, coal miners, teachers, students and other innocent people in Colombia," said Jones. "When Drummond chose to switch many of its operations to Colombia, it did so knowing that country's hostile political climate and egregious human rights violations."

According to the ICEM, Colombia has the world's worst record for violence against trade unionists; 75 percent of those killed worldwide were in Colombia. At least 129 Colombian trade unionists were murdered last year, and, so far, 63 have been killed this year. On a typical day, 26 people are massacred and 10 more "disappear." Political violence has claimed the lives of more than 35,000 Colombians during the last decade.

"Both the Colombian and U.S. governments have failed in their responsibilities to protect workers from this epidemic of violence," Jones said. "Employers in Colombia are obligated to take extraordinary measures to safeguard their employees," he added. "Drummond has failed."
(snip/...)

http://www.umwa.org/journal/VOL112NO4/july3.shtml

(This article is several years old: Alvaro Uribe is the current President, many more union workers have been murdered, and far more money has been pumped into the Uribe government since it was written.)

[Bacchus39]

6. here is an article that is one day old about Colombia

Colombia Challenges Rebels With a New Weapon
Government Bringing Social Programs to Long-Neglected Regions in Bid to Establish a State Presence

Washington Post

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; Page A10

SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia -- Marxist rebels once ran a visitors center in this town in southern Colombia, the office staffed by a young, amiable female guerrilla and the walls decorated with huge posters of famed fighters. Rebels ran a court, built bridges and taxed locals, including the farmers who grew coca in such abundance that the region became ground zero for the war on drugs.

Those were the days when the government had ceded this town to guerrillas for disarmament negotiations, simply making official the absence of a state presence to which residents had long been accustomed.


Even with billions of dollars in U.S. aid, Colombia is laboring to control the growth of coca, the green leaf that is the principal ingredient in cocaine. In the absence of jobs, poor farmers are harvesting the plant across the country. Fumigation techniques have not been widely successful and Colombia is now turning to the dangerous mission of manually eradicating the plant.


Now, in an ambitious government program here and in 52 other towns nationwide, a multi-agency task force operated out of Bogota has built schools and roads and introduced public institutions such as courts. In essence, President Álvaro Uribe's administration is trying to create a functioning state, essential if the government is ever to erode the power of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's biggest rebel group.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070901692.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. Drummond jury selection starts

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Drummond jury selection starts:

Jury selection began Monday in the Drummond Co. trial over the killings of three union officials at the company's coal mine in Colombia.

Prospective jurors, lawyers and presiding Judge Karon Bowdre met behind closed doors in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, said Daniel Kovalik, a lawyer representing the Colombian energy workers union and the families of the dead men. Jury selection will continue today, said Kovalik.

Birmingham-based Drummond is accused of committing war crimes by paying right-wing militia members to kill the men. The lawsuit cited an obscure 1789 law that allows Americans to be sued in U.S. court for their conduct overseas. Drummond has vigorously denied any involvement with armed groups.

Also Monday, court officials said about 15 protesters carrying anti-Drummond signs were dispersed by the police without incident or arrest for not having the required permits to conduct a large-scale demonstration.

http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/1184057363147500.xml&coll=2

[Judi Lynn]

9. Ala. Jury Hears Colombia Killings Case

Ala. Jury Hears Colombia Killings Case

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 11, 2007
Filed at 3:19 p.m. ET

~snip~
The union has presented affidavits to the court from two people who say they were present when Drummond's chief executive in Colombia, Augusto Jimenez, handed over a large sum of cash to representatives of the local paramilitary warlord for the killings of Locarno and Orcasita. Drummond denies the claims.

The first plaintiff's witness, former Drummond employee George Mack Pierce of Yuma, Ariz., said the company had a ''hostile attitude'' toward the union.

Pierce said he once heard Jimenez say ''A fish that swims with its mouth open soon dies'' when asked about union negotiations.

Rusty Johnson, an attorney for the men's relatives and union, said in his opening statement that witnesses will testify that paramilitary forces were spotted on Drummond property and used its gasoline.

''They chose a side in the war. They chose the paramilitaries. It was a natural alliance,'' Johnson said.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Colombia-Coal-Killings.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[killbotfactory]

10. The "free market" at work

They used to do this in the US, now they are exporting all the hired thug jobs too.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Drummond Aided in Killings of Workers, Jury Told

Drummond Aided in Killings of Workers, Jury Told (Update2)

By David Voreacos

~~~~ click for photo ~~~~

Edwin Guzman, a former Colombian military sergeant

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Drummond Ltd., a U.S. coal producer, aided paramilitaries who murdered three union leaders at a mine in Colombia, a lawyer told federal jurors in the first trial of a U.S. corporation for human rights abuses abroad.

Attorney Herman ``Rusty'' Johnson, who represents families of the three men, said gunmen killed the leaders who got death threats in 2001 after complaining about conditions at Drummond's mine near La Loma. Drummond allied with paramilitaries against guerrillas in a decades-old conflict in Colombia, Johnson said.

``Drummond made a couple of choices,'' Johnson said in opening statements in Birmingham, Alabama. ``They chose to go down to a war zone to conduct their coal-mining operations and make some money. They made a choice in the war. They chose the paramilitaries. They chose union leaders for elimination.''

The families sued under a 218-year-old law that allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for torture and other abuses. Drummond, a family-owned business based in Birmingham, played no role in the murders and took no sides in hostilities that caused thousands of deaths, said company lawyer William Jeffress.
(snip/...)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a0pzSX4iR1lQ&refer=latin_america

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The man has to be a modern miracle in courage: willing to testify despite the fact Colombian death squads, and their powerful allies in the Colombian government, and the Drummond Company officials who ordered the murders of Colombian union workers are all forces far more powerful than he is, and there's absolutely no way he can expect to be protected from any of them for the rest of his life.

God bless this brave, and decent man. People like him apparently are in short supply.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Good grief! Drummond got one of Scooter Libby's lawyers.

Drummond exec made threat, worker testifies
Trial begins in civil case over union leaders' deaths
Thursday, July 12, 2007
RUSSELL HUBBARDNews staff writer

~snip~
After two days of jury selection, trial moved on Wednesday to the opening statements of the two sides. Lawyers for the Colombian energy workers' union and the families of the dead men attempted to show the five men and five women on the jury that Drummond's supervisors were opposed to labor unions. The dead men were all top officers of a local branch of the Sintramienergetica union that represents some of Drummond's 3,000 workers at the mine near La Loma.

George Pierce, who worked at the 25,000-acre mine in northwest Colombia, testified that he overhead Jimenez, head of Drummond's operation in South America, utter the words about dead fish in 1999 on a company plane. Pierce said Jimenez made the statement after being asked about the state of labor negotiations with the union.

"I knew what he really meant," Pierce said. "He was serious."

In 2001, labor leaders Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita and Gustavo Soler were killed. Their families and the union say it was a right-wing militia called AUC, for its Spanish acronym. Drummond contends the identity of the killers is unknown.

Drummond attorney William Jeffress in his opening remarks described the deaths of the union officials as "a shocking, horrible thing."

"They didn't deserve to die, but they are three among thousands of murder victims from the violence in Colombia," said Jeffress, a Washington lawyer who also represents former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whose 30-month sentence in the CIA leak trial was commuted by President Bush earlier this month.
(snip/...)

http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/business/1184229955107070.xml&coll=2