'Drummond congratulated paramilitaries on unionist murders'

[Judi Lynn]

'Drummond congratulated paramilitaries on unionist murders'
Thursday, 11 November 2010 07:20 Adriaan Alsema

U.S. coal giant Drummond congratulated members of paramilitary organization AUC on the murder of two labor rights activists working for the Colombian branch of the company, a paramilitary testified Wednesday.

Drummond is involved in a lawsuit filed by victims of paramilitary violence that accuse the coal company of having given money to paramilitary organization AUC between 1999 and 2005, during which 116 civilians were killed in the region where the firm operates.

According to Spanish press agency EFE, the lawyer of one of the bosses of the demobilized AUC, extradited Rodrigo "Jorge 40" Tuvar Pupo, told press that his client admits responsibility for the murder of the unionists in 2001.

A second paramilitary, "Samario," said in the hearing that two Drummond executives congratulated Jorge 40 and Oscar Jose Ospino, alias "Tolemaida" on the crime in a meeting that took place after the double homicide, Caracol Radio reported.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/12849-drummond-congratulated-paramilitaries-with-unionist-murders.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Regarding an earlier trial involving Drummond's hired hit on 3 union workers,

that trial was held in Birmingham, Alabama, Drummond's own headquarter's town, and one of the witnesses, a member of the paramilitary group hired to kill them was not allowed to come to the US by Uribe's government. The court in B'ham found there wasn't enough evidence, then, to return any verdict against Drummond. Yup.

Here's one article which discusses the murders:

Drummond Coal Goes on Trial Over Colombia Killings

The Drummond coal company helped finance a Colombian paramilitary group that murdered three union leaders who opposed company mining policies, a plaintiffs' attorney told a U.S. court on Wednesday. Herman Johnson was speaking at the start of a civil trial of the Alabama-based company on charges that it committed a war crime by providing support to a paramilitary group suspected of the 2001 killings.

Privately-held Drummond Company Inc. denies any connection with paramilitary groups in a case considered a landmark because it could, if successful, open the door for other parties to sue transnational companies on human rights abuses. A Drummond lawyer called the charges "unbelievable."

Witnesses will testify that Drummond gave cash and cars to the paramilitary groups fighting in a 40-year insurgency in the Latin American country.

"U.S. companies operating overseas should be held to the same standards as they are here," said Johnson, whose clients are seeking financial damages. "Union leaders at the La Loma mine were fighting to change conditions. They are not here today because in 2001 they were executed."

Paramilitaries stopped a company bus carrying union leaders Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita and other workers from the La Loma mine at the end of a shift on March 12, 2001, he said. Locarno was shot in the head and Orcasita was tortured and killed. A third union leader, Gustavo Soler, replaced Locarno and was found dead in October.

More:
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/doc/drummond.html

I would like to add that these men had been getting death threats well before they were murdered. They had gone to the officials at Drummond and had begged to be able to stay overnight and sleep on the ground at the company, in order to avoid being exposed inordinately to the people sending the death threats, travelling back and forth every weeknight. The officials flatly refused to allow them to stay on company property. Profoundly goddawful way to treat employees.

http://www.elpilon.com.co.nyud.net:8090/inicio/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/victor-hugo-orcasita.jpg

Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez
Paramilitary Members Face Justice in Murders of Two Colombian Union Leaders
by James Parks, Aug 25, 2009

Eight long years after Colombian trade union leaders Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya were assassinated, those directly responsible for these heinous crimes are being punished.

Just yesterday, Alcides Maneul Mattos Tavares, alias “el Samario,” confessed to having participated as one of the gunmen. The other assassin, Jairo Charris Jesus, was sentenced Aug. 7 to 30 years in prison for his role in the murders. Both men were members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the umbrella paramilitary organization.

Two other paramilitary leaders, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias “Jorge 40,” and Oscar Jose Ospina Pacheco, alias “Tolemaida,” also face trial for their involvement in these crimes. Tovar’s case is complicated, however, by the fact that he was extradited to the United States on drug-trafficking charges earlier this year.

Locarno and Orcasita, president and vice president, respectively, of Sintramienergica, the mine and energy workers union, were killed in March 2001. Both worked for the U.S.-based mining multinational, Drummond.

More:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/08/25/paramilitary-members-face-justice-in-murders-of-two-colombian-union-leaders/

http://www.changetowin.org.nyud.net:8090/connect/WindowsLiveWriter/TrialBeginsforMiningCompanyAccusedofKill_9851/image%7B0%7D%5B8%5D.png

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe (pictured above with Gary Drummond, President of Drummond Co.) has ties to paramilitary groups. Drummond wants to expand operations in Colombia, and coincidentally, paramilitaries are reportedly appropriating coal-rich lands by force in parts of Colombia where Drummond has its greatest presence.

More:
http://www.changetowin.org/connect/2007/07/trial_begins_for_mining_compan.html