“Colombia is immersed in
a holocaust of Biblical
proportions”
By Stephen Flanagan
Jackson
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- He
in his signature
“guayabera” and me in my
gringo cowboy shirt, we
perch in the salubrious,
tropical breeze of the
Caribbean night in
Cartagena, Colombia,
palm trees rustling over
the moonlight-soaked
veranda of the colonial
restaurant. Gabriel
Garcia Marquez tells me
that “Colombia is
immersed in a holocaust
of Biblical
proportions.”
Valmore Locarno would
attest to that. Victor
Hugo Orcasita would
attest to that. Gustavo
Soler would attest to
that. The problem is the
Colombians are all
dead…slain, execution
style. Unidentified
right wing paramilitary
assassinated “The
Drummond Three” in 2001
because they were union
leaders at the coal
mines of Drummond
Limited in northeast
Colombia. No one in
Colombia has been
arrested in the murders.
A controversial US civil
lawsuit charges that the
hitmen were “aided and
abetted” by the Colombia
subsidiary of the US
multinational Drummond
---or at least that is
what a Washington, DC
labor attorney claims.
His cross-town rival,
from James Baker’s
lawfirm, begs to differ.
“If you hire the Mafia
for protection and they
kill someone then you
are responsible” is the
common sense approach,
posits Terry
Collingsworth, a
Colombia labor union
lawyer based at the
International Labor
Relief Fund in DC.
Drummond is mired in the
tar baby called
Colombia. Chiquita
Banana got
out----shaking off the
tar, and paying a hefty
price---- a $25 million
settlement agreement to
the US Justice
Department. Drummond is
sinking, sinking deeper
into the Colombia
quagmire, ironically
piling up record profits
from its worldwide coal
sales, Israel its number
one customer. Several
regional US utilities
are customers of
Drummond’s quality
Colombia coal---dripping
with the blood of the
slain Colombia workers.
Generous campaign
donations from Drummond
to both
presidents---Bush and
Alvaro Uribe of
Colombia---have not
staved off the
inevitable---an
embarrassing and
revealing jury trial for
wrongful deaths in a US
Federal Court in its
corporate hometown. Jury
selection started July 9
at the Hugo L. Black
Federal Courthouse in
Birmingham, Ala.
Labor’s legal weapon is
the recently resurrected
1789 Alien Tort Claims
Act which permits
foreigners to sue US
corporations and
citizens for alleged
wrong acts abroad. “The
Drummond Three” is the
first lawsuit filed
under the ATCA to go to
a jury trial in a US
court, located,
ironically, in that
crucible of civil
rights--- Birmingham,
Ala. Slowly but surely
the controversial case
of “The Drummond Three”
is emerging as the
marquee case among a
slew of recent similar
cases involving “big”
international labor
versus US multinationals
in a wave of
assassinations---and
alleged abuses----of
trade union members in
third world countries.
In Colombia, government
statistics officially
list 800 murder victims
from the union ranks in
the last six years,
rarely resulting in a
trial or conviction.
An erstwhile, obscure US
law---the 1789 ATCA---is
the weapon of choice for
international labor’s
legal, frontal assault
against such US
multinationals as
Coca-Cola, Del Monte,
Unocal, Nestle, and
Wal-Mart. The spate of
filings alleges a
tort---a civil
wrongdoing---by the
giant corporations
against the nationals
employed in the host
countries. The US law
permits any foreigner to
bring a tort action in a
US court---a civil
charge not a criminal
one---against any US
citizen or US
corporation for any
alleged wrongdoing
abroad. The ATCA was
resurrected in the 1990s
by US labor attorneys
and human rights groups,
specifying labor
infractions and human
rights violations,
including murder. Of all
these cases, only one
has resulted in a
victory for labor and
its lawyers--- and that
was settled prior to a
trial. Union Oil Co. of
California agreed in
2004 to pay $500 million
to Burma workers forced
by that country’s
dictator to work on
Unocal’s pipeline. The
Drummond Three is the
first ATCA case to go to
a jury trial. The civil
suit brought by the
slain men’s Colombia
labor union and family
survivors is being heard
under the gavel of a
President
Bush-appointee, Judge
Karon O. Bowdre.
This Spring in
Washington, both
president Uribe and
Colombia’s special
prosecutor were in town.
Uribe seeking US funds
and support for a free
trade agreement and Plan
Colombia. The
prosecutor, Mario
Iguaran, seeking to
inform US officials
about his investigation
of alleged ties between
multinationals and the
Colombia-outlawed,
left-wing and right-wing
cadres---both deemed
terrorists by the US.
Iguaran is particularly
interested in the
rampant---with
impunity---killings of
Colombia unionists by
the hundreds and the
nexus between the
right-wing paramilitary,
the Colombia government
and military, and US
multinationals,
especially the Chiquita
case and the murders of
The Drummond Three.
The Colombia government
March 20 announced an
investigation into
charges that the
Birmingham-based
Drummond “aided and
abetted” paramilitary to
kill the three union
members in 2001. “What
we are seeing is some
private businesses that
recruit paramilitaries,
aware of their conduct
to kill,” Iguaran tells
journalists in Bogota.
That same day in a US
Federal Court in
Alabama, the judge
permitted the deposition
of the Colombia Canary
to go forward. Rafael
Garcia is singing and
swearing. Other
Colombians and former
Drummond workers are
stepping forward as
witnesses to Drummond’s
clandestine relationship
with the
paramilitary---an
illegal relationship by
US law.
“I saw Drummond’s top
man in Colombia, Augusto
Jiminez, pass a
briefcase full of about
$200,000 to the right
wing paramilitary headed
by Jorge 40 (Rodrigo
Tovar Pupo) with the
orders to kill the two
workers ,” Garcia told a
LatinAmericanPost.com
journalist(Stephen
Flanagan Jackson) in an
exclusive interview in
his prison cell in
Bogota. Garcia is doing
time for manipulating
computer data in his
former job as a Colombia
government intelligence
official.
“I know the relation of
Drummond with the Bloque
Norte paramilitary,”
claims Garcia, a former
Colombia intelligence
officer, imprisoned for
erasing computer data on
right wing paramilitary.
“Drummond paid the
Bloque Norte to
supposedly guard its
transportation of coal
from the mine to its
Caribbean port. Drummond
paid a terrorist group
for safe passage…for
protection!
“The paramilitary had
secret employees at
Drummond’s La Loma coal
mines,” continues Garcia
in his private prison
cubicle where he is
enduring fears of being
rubbed out. “Drummond
knows who they are, but
the other workers do
not.
“Drummond also hires
private security who are
members of the
paramilitary and
Drummond knows they are
part of the
paramilitary,” avers
Garcia under oath .
Drummond, Garcia
charges, in cahoots with
the Uribe
administration, also was
involved in the
questionable takeover of
a nearby oil concession
from Llanos Oil.
“I can also tell you
that there were two
times that the
paramilitary affixed
shipments of cocaine to
the bottom of the boats
used by Drummond to send
its coal to Europe,
Israel, and the US,”
offers Garcia, adding, “
I will go to hell to
testify… if provided
protection for me and my
family.”
“Lies…damnable lies” is
the tag put on the
allegations by Drummond
attorney Willliam
Jeffress, Jr, also on
the legal team of Lewis
“Scooter” Libby.
Jeffress’ law firm was
rebuffed by the US State
Department where it sent
Ignacio Sanchez to lobby
State to have the
federal killings case
dismissed on grounds of
political action theory
and international
comity, unsuccessfully
arguing a public trial
could have an adverse
effect on US foreign
policy. Jeffress vows,
if Drummond loses, to
take the case to the US
Supreme Court to test
the constitutionality of
the re-invented ATCA.
Washington’s Plan
Colombia---millions in
US aid---- is a lurking
issue in the Drummond
predicament. Drummond
has admitted in a
deposition that it pays
the Colombia military
for security at its coal
mines, nicknamed Camp
Drummond due to the
military and security
build-up.
Washington also comes in
to play with the
involvement of warring
factions in Colombia’s
interminable civil war
and in the volatile
tensions surrounding
Drummond coal mines,
perched precariously
close to Venezuela. In
Colombia, both the right
wing paramilitaries and
the left wing Communist
insurgents are
officially declared
“terrorists” by the US
government. Both groups
engage in extortion,
kidnapping, and drug
dealing. US law makes it
illegal for US companies
to provide financial
assistance to either or
both.
“We are under constant
threats from the
paramilitary and
‘sicarios’ (hired
assassins) while
Drummond has the
Colombian army---backed
by US funds---guarding
its La Loma facilities
and we (union members)
are left to fend for
ourselves,” says Omar
Estupinan, a union local
officer and Drummond
employee.
Fernando Leyva Duran ,
publisher of
LatinAmericanPost.com in
Bogota, says Colombia is
in the midst of a severe
political crisis
involving collusion and
corruption by government
officials and the
paramilitary. “If it is
not the narcotraffickers
that destabilize
Colombia , it is the
left wing armed
guerrilla,” says Leyva.
“And now it appears the
right wing paramilitary
is causing great damage
to our society.
“We need to find a way
for this surge of
multinational
corporation investment
to work to the advantage
of all Colombians,” says
Leyva, “or Colombia will
fall under the sway of
Chavez.”
( Stephen Flanagan
Jackson is Associate
Editor of
LatinAmericanPost.com.
Contact [email protected])
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