A civil trial begins today in Birmingham, Alabama, where lawyers for the International Labor Rights Fund and the United Steelworkers will present evidence that the mining company Drummond Co. hired hitmen to kill two union leaders in Colombia.
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.
Union leaders, former army soldiers and ex-paramilitary fighters also allege that family-owned Drummond, which shifted most of its operations to northern Colombia in the 1990s as its Alabama veins gave out, paid and provisioned the paramilitaries as a matter of policy.
Previous efforts to use the Alien Tort Claims Act to make mulitnational corporations accountable for actions in other countries have failed. To win this case, the families must show the slayings amounted to war crimes sanctioned by state officials. Their attorneys say they can prove this since union activists have been systematically slaughtered in Colombia.
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.
A "free" trade deal with the United States was approved in Colombia's Congress last month. Democratic leaders in Washington say concerns over the South American country's labor rights record will delay approval from the U.S. Congress.
