Alabama Federal Judge Allows Suit Against Drummond Coal In Colombian Union Deaths To Continue

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Workers Independent News

By Doug Cunningham

A federal judge in Alabama has refused to throw out a lawsuit alleging that Drummond Coal company is liable in the deaths of union activists in Colombia. The suit alleges Drummond was complicit with right-wing death squads in the murders. In a previous suit a jury in 2008 found Drummond not liable for deaths of union activists. But former Colombian right-wing paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso testified in court and before U.S. congressional committees that Drummond and its subsidiary had paid his group to assassinate top union leaders at Drummond’s Colombian coal mine. Stephan Flanagan Jackson is a journalist and journalism associate professor at Stillman College in Alabama. He said he’s interviewed some of these right-wing paramilitary members.

: “One who told me himself eyeball to eyeball that he saw the money being passed by a Drummond executive to the right-wing paramilitary leaders with the orders to get – to wipe out – the coal miners who were leading the union there at Drummond. So there’s pretty strong evidence. It’s just a matter of will this evidence be presented and be believable in a U.S. court.”

For an in-depth interview on Drummond’s alleged liability in these deaths, listen to WIN’s Labor Radio internet program at www.laborradio.org



Read more: http://www.laborradio.org/node/13537

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Thank god I saw your article, finally! This is amazing news.

The union workers, the families have tried again and again to get some level of justice against Drummond for these killings, these hideous, public spectacles.

In one of the killings paramilitaries stopped a bus carrying workers out of the Drummond area, went on the bus, shot one of the men (or two, can't remember) in front of the other Drummond workers, then took another away with them. That man was found later, with clear evidence of torture, and of course, very dead.

Some workers were so terrified at the thought of being exposed to this possibility every night after work, they begged for permission to be able to find a little place on the worksite to curl up and simply sleep there overnight, returning to their homes on weekends. Drummond of Alabama totally refused them any chance of sanctuary.

They had a witness who had been hospitalized in Colombia just as one of the suits went to trial in Birmingham, Alabama, Drummond headquarters town, and they begged for the chance to wait until the witness could be brought from Colombia to testify and the judge in that trial refused, and consequently the workers lost their bid for justice.

Now that they have Salvatore Mancuso, one of the BIGGEST warlord paramilitary leaders in Colombia right here in the United States, brought here during _{George W. Bush's} pResidency on a drug offense (a quick extradition of Mancuso to the U.S. took him out of Colombia conveniently so he would not be available for an explosive trial concerning all the people he and his associates had killed in Colombia, which would be a devastating embarrassment to the Uribe administration which has been getting closer and closer to being irrevocably exposed as being completely connected to the paramilitaries as a continual adjunct to the Colombian military) suddenly Alabama decides it must treat these LOUDER, and hard to ignore charges coming from a very powerful source.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/auc/mancuso.jpg http://static.guim.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/01/17/SalvatoreMancuso.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2007/05/16/world/600-colombia-01.jpg

http://static2.elespectador.com.nyud.net:8090/files/images/06f14d9abb87c2c5c29f3c6d17097b2f.jpg

Salvatore Mancuso
For anyone who might care to see a video, here's a link to CBS's 60 Minutes' coverage which features an interview with Salvatore Mancuso concerning U.S. company Chiquita (formerly United Fruits) and its relationship to the paramilitaries:

Aug. 9, 2009
The Price Of Bananas
Steve Kroft On How Colombian Paramilitaries Landed A U.S. Corporation In Hot Water
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/08/60minutes/main4080920.shtml

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Thank you, Omaha Steve for posting this important news. Sorry I didn't see it earlier and recommend it at that time. This is such good news for people who've been waiting for Drummond to face the consequences for its crimes against humanity. Of course they'll slip out of it, but the opportunity for exposure is far, far GREATER now, and that's a step forward.