25 August, 2008
On 13 August, in the northern Colombian city of Baranquilla, the right-wing paramilitary group “Black Eagles” issued a communiqué calling for death to community activists and trade union leaders, most notably a union leader in ICEM mining affiliate Sintracarbòn. He is Adolfo Llanos.
The ICEM strongly denounced the cowardly acts in a letter to the Colombian government and the three MNCs that control worksites in which Sintracarbòn represents coal miners, and transport and port workers. The ICEM demanded greater security for trade union leaders in the letter, and for the government to apprehend and convict those responsible.
ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda
“It must now be the obligation and responsibility of the government, in close cooperation with the management of Carbones del Cerejón, to ensure the safety for all the people on this death list,” wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We take this vile and cowardly letter seriously and we hope you do as well, particularly in view of the fact that the 22 March 2008 murder of Sintracarbòn activist Adolfo González Montes has gone unsolved.”
González Montes was a committeeman for the Barrancas mining section of Sintracarbòn. He was murdered early in the morning of 22 March prior to his work turn at his home in Riohacha. Before his murder, multiple assailants tortured him in front of his four children, and immediately following the murder, other leaders of Sintracarbòn received telephone death threats.
Adolfo Llanos is a union leader at Puerto Bolivar, Cerrejón’s deep-water coal export port on the Caribbean coast. Carbones del Cerrejón is one of the world’s largest open pit coal mining firms, equally owned by AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata.
The Colombian government has maintained that the Aquilas Negras, or “Black Eagles,” no longer exists. But leaders of other unions have received death threats from the paramilitary group, including the food and beverage trade union Sinaltraninal late last year.