American Owned Coal Firm Linked To Colombian Terrorist Militias

Did Drummond Co. Inc., hire radical right-wing militias to terrorize its own workers?American-Owned Coal Firm Linked To Colombian Terrorist MilitiasBy Cliff Montgomery – July 7th, 2007The bus carrying about 50 workers was stopped by the gunmen not long after it left Drummond Co. Inc.’s coal mine. The men with the guns forced off two union leaders.Maybe they knew what was coming. Maybe nobody knew.The terrorists killed one on the spot, pounding four bullets into his brain. The other was dragged away; first tortured, then murdered in cold blood.Al-Qaeda? Hezbollah? The terrorists who performed these acts may work for others much closer to home.A civil trial set to begin Monday before a Birmingham, AL, federal jury may provide the answer. Union lawyers have produced affidavits from two people who say that Drummond ordered both killings. It is a charge the corporation flatly denies.For the record, other multi-national corporations with operations in Colombia have acknowledged paying right-wing terrorist militias to protect their ‘investments’.The U.S. Justice Department slapped Chiquita Brands International Inc. with a $25 million fine this year for buying $1.7 million worth of the militias’ services from 1997-2004. Chiquita claimed the monthly terrorist payments by its wholly-owned subsidiary Banadex were “to protect the lives of its employees”–you know, the same employees the corporation works harder and harder but pay less and ever less.Human rights activists counter that the companies also employed the para-militaries to terrorize their own labor forces, hoping to keep down labor costs. The Drummond case, rights activists add, may well be their best chance yet of seeing those charges proven in court.The Birmingham affidavits quote two individuals who say they were present when Augusto Jimenez, Drummond’s chief executive in Colombia, paid a large sum of money to representatives of the local militia boss. They add the payment was for the March 10th, 2001, murders of both Sintramienergetica union local president Valmore Locarno and the union’s number two man, Victor Orcasita.And the charges are not just coming from union members. Ex-paramilitary fighters and former army soldiers say that family-owned Drummond, which moved the majority of its operations to northern Colombia during the 1990s, long gave both pay and provisions to the terror militias.Rafael Garcia, former head of technology at Columbia’s DAS state security agency, said in an affidavit that he witnessed Drummond’s Jimenez give “a suitcase full of cash” to terror militia bosses “to assassinate specific union leaders.” Garcia apparently even named Locarno and Orcasita as the men pegged for assassination in his affidavit.How might Garcia have been there? He is currently in prison, found guilty of erasing the names of drug traffickers from DAS records.Former militia member Alberto Visbal states in an affidavit that he saw Jimenez give $200,000 in cash to his boss, who he says went by the alias “Julian.” He said he discovered from another terrorist present that the payment was for the killings, and added he was later the man who confirmed Locarno’s murder for all involved. Visbal has since fled Colombia.Drummond denies the accounts.”We have evidence that some (of the witnesses) are being paid and/or offered assistance by the United Steelworkers Union,” it claimed in a written response to Associated Press (AP). But Drummond apparently failed to produce evidence of that charge.The lawsuit utilizes a U.S. law that allows foreigners to sue American-based corporations for unlawful conduct in their countries. The plantiffs seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. They further state that Locarno, Orcasita and Gustavo Soler–who was himself murdered after taking over for Locarno–“were direct victims of Drummond’s plan to violently destroy the union.””I think they thought they could get away with anything, literally get away with murder,” United Steelworkers lawyer Daniel Kovalik said to AP.The workers may have help from unexpected sources on their lawsuit.Three people not connected with the union informed AP that Drummond paid the right-wing terrorist militias to act as guards of its coal trains and its 25,000-acre La Loma mine. The corporation claimed a fear of left-wing rebel sabotage. They added that Drummond supplied motorcycles and pickup trucks to the militias, and regularly fed them. The company even allowed them to refill their gas tanks on mine property.The first had been a mid-level member of the militias, and had worked in the area until early 2006. He spoke to AP on condition of anonymity; he remains in Colombia, and says he fears for his life. He told AP that the terrorists were hired to guard Drummond’s trains as they traversed the 120-mile line from the La Loma coal mine to the coast.The two other individuals wish to testify before U.S. and Colombian authorities: Isnardo Ropero, a former bodyguard for Drummond’s community relations director; and Edwin Guzman, a onetime army sergeant who eventually joined the terrorist militias. Both men have fled Colombia, in apparent fear for their lives.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!