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16 July, 2007
Jury selection began last week in a US courtroom in the state of Alabama over Drummond Coal’s alleged authorisation of the murders of three trade union leaders in Colombia. The company, in a case brought by ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) and the International Labor Rights Fund, is being accused of aiding, abetting, and funding the murders of the three trade unionists in 2001 by right-wing paramilitaries.
The case was filed on behalf of family members of the slain union leaders under the US’s Alien Torts Claims Act, which allows foreigners to file civil suit against US companies for millions of dollars in damages for crimes committed outside the US. The plaintiffs won a key victory on 5 March 2007 when the US Federal District Court of Northern Alabama ruled that there was enough evidence against Drummond for the charges to go to trial. Drummond is based in Alabama.
The lawsuit contends that in 2001, Valmore Lacarno, Victor Oracasita, Gustavo Soler, all labour leaders in the Colombian mining union Sintramienergética, “were ultimately murdered by paramilitary employees and/or agents working for (Drummond) to eliminate effective leaders from the trade union representing Drummond workers, and to intimidate other workers from joining the union or assuming a union leadership position.”
In 10 March 2001, Valmore Lacarno Rodríguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were pulled from a Drummond-chartered bus on their way to work at the company’s La Loma mine. They were then shot execution style. Lacarno was the president of the union, while Orcasita was the vice president.
Some months later, the new president of Sintramienergética, Gustavo Soler, was assassinated.
On behalf of the estates of the three, the USW and the Human Rights Fund will present affidavits from those who witnessed the horrific deeds, as well as present in court witnesses who had direct knowledge of Drummond’s alleged complicity in the killings. They include a former Colombian army combatant, who later became a part of a right-wing paramilitary group, and a bodyguard to Drummond’s director of Community Relations, who witnessed a large monetary pay-off from the company’s managing director to paramilitaries.
If the civil suit is successful and punitive damages are awarded, it will mark the first time in US history that the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act has been used to find a company guilty of crimes abroad.