Union claims new witness found in suit over Colombian killings

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Story last updated at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Union claims new witness found in suit over Colombian killings


By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A union that blames an Alabama coal producer for the murders of three labor leaders in Colombia claimed Tuesday that a second witness has come forward saying he was at a meeting where a company executive paid off a paramilitary leader for the slayings.

Labor attorneys filed a one-page declaration by former paramilitary member Alberto Visbal in a bid to back up claims by another potential witness, Rafael Garcia, who contends he saw an executive from Drummond Ltd. hand over money in exchange for the killings of union leaders who worked for Drummond in Colombia in 2001.

Visbal claimed he was at two meetings between Drummond's Colombian chief executive, Augusto Jimenez, and a top paramilitary leader. Visbal said that while he didn't hear talks between the men, a friend did and told him about a $200,000 payment and discussions that concerned the need to "neutralize" three people.

Garcia was present for at least one of the meetings, said Visbal, who also claimed he was asked by the commander of his paramilitary unit to go verify that one of the Drummond workers had been killed. Using a photograph, Visbal said he found a body and verified that Valmore Locarno was dead


Read more: http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/061207/D8PNH2384.shtml

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Drummond case shows danger facing Colombian unions
16 Nov 2006 19:51:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

Colombia displacement
More By Hugh Bronstein

LA LOMA, Colombia, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A labor union leader at the U.S.-owned Drummond coal mine was pulled off a bus in northern Colombia and shot to death by masked right-wing gunmen one March evening in 2001, according to court papers accusing the company of ordering the killing.

The body of Valmore Locarno was displayed to the other passengers as a warning about what happens to labor activists in this war-twisted country where leftist guerrillas are pitted against right-wing paramilitaries. The union's No. 2, Victor Orcasita, was thrown into a pickup truck and killed later.

"The paramilitaries boarded the bus and asked for Locarno and Orcasita by name, saying that these two had a problem with Drummond," a court document says.

The U.S. federal lawsuit filed in Drummond's home state of Alabama has gained attention in Europe, where power companies DONG of Denmark and Essent of the Netherlands said last week they halted new coal purchases from the company. Both are minor clients.
(snip)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16333983.htm

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US aid fuels a dirty war against unions
by David Bacon

In mid-March, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Orcasita were riding from their jobs at the Loma coal mine in northern Colombia. Locarno and Orcasita were president and vice president of the union at the mine, a local of Sintramienergetica, one of Colombia's two coal miners' unions. As the company bus neared Valledupar, 30 miles from the mine, it was stopped by 15 gunmen, some in military uniforms.

They began checking the identification of the workers, and when they found the two union leaders, they were pulled off the bus. Locarno was hit in the head with a rifle butt. One of the gunmen then shot him in the face, as his fellow workers on the bus watched in horror. Orcasita was taken off into the woods at the side of the road. There he was tortured. When his body was found later, his fingernails had been torn off.

Leading a union often means losing a job, even blacklisting. In many countries, it can
bring imprisonment by governments who view unions as a threat to the social and economic elite. But the most dangerous country by far is Colombia, where labor activism is often punished with death. By mid-May, 44 Colombian trade union leaders already had been murdered this year. Last year, assassinations cost the lives of 129 others. According to Hector Fajardo, general secretary of the United Confederation of Workers (CUT), the country's largest union federation, 3,800 trade unionists have been assassinated since 1986. Out of every five trade unionists killed in the world, three are Colombian.

U.S. energy, trade and military policies are contributing to the devastation of the country's labor movement. Bush administration energy policies encourage the use of coal in U.S. power plants, and millions of tons are now mined for export by U.S. corporations in the midst of Colombia's civil war. Free market economic reforms, pushed by the International Monetary Fund, are provoking a wave of resistance by Colombian labor, which is being met by violent repression. And U.S. military aid provided by Plan Colombia supports activities by right-wing paramilitary groups, who in turn target trade union leaders.
(snip)

http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/17/bacon2517.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia ordered to pay millions in massacre case

Colombia ordered to pay millions in massacre case
POSTED: 4:54 p.m. EDT, June 11, 2007

BOGOTA, Columbia (Reuters) -- In a ruling hailed as a landmark by human rights advocates, the Colombian government has been ordered to pay damages over a 1989 massacre of state investigators by army-backed militias.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered more than $5 million in damages be paid to relatives of 12 investigators killed by right-wing paramilitaries in the northern hamlet of La Rochela.

The decision, which cannot be appealed, marks the first time the state has been found guilty of involvement in the murder of its own agents.

"The ruling shows that the state not only lacked the will to confront the paramilitaries, but that some officials colluded with them against the government's own investigators," said Michael Camilleri, who worked on the case for the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/06/11/columbia.massacre.reut/

[Judi Lynn]

2. USW Congressional Letter Condemns Colombia’s Failure to Prosecute Trade Unionists’ Murders

News From USW: USW Congressional Letter Condemns Colombia’s Failure to Prosecute Trade Unionists’ Murders Cites Evidence of Witnesses in Protective Custody Being Suppressed by Colombia’s Prosecuting Authorities; Urges Rejection of Trade Deal
Pittsburgh -

PITTSBURGH -- News From USW: The United Steelworkers (USW) union today informed members of Congress that the union is “aware of witnesses in protective custody in Colombia who have knowledge” about the murder of trade unionists by paramilitaries connected to the government, “but who have never been asked about this knowledge” by the Colombian authorities.

“As long as the Uribe administration continues to suppress crucial evidence about these murders and its own connection to them, it is unconscionable for Congress even to consider passing a trade agreement with that government, let alone give it billions more in aid when there’s indisputable evidence his administration has conspired with paramilitaries to assassinate workers,” said USW President Leo W. Gerard.

The USW’s letter specifically cites the case of three Colombian trade union leaders at the mining operations of U.S.–based Drummond Company who were murdered by paramilitary forces.

The USW took the unprecedented step of filing an Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) case against the Drummond Company, resulting in part from first-hand testimony of these human rights violations gathered during visits to Colombia by a U.S. delegation of the USW.

“While the Attorney General of Colombia claims to be investigating Drummond for the murder of three trade unionists in 2001,” the union’s letter states, “the USW is aware of witnesses in protective custody in Colombia who have knowledge about Drummond’s connections with these murders, but who have never been asked about this knowledge.”
(snip/...)

http://pittsburgh.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=122141&type_news=latest

[Peace Patriot]

3. That's two U.S. corps paying these death squads--Drummon and Chiquita--and of

the Bush Cartel (with our tax dollars)--$4 billion to the criminal Uribe regime.

This incredible scandal keeps boiling but not quite erupting here in the U.S. It's a big one. Bush hands real dirty on this, I think (Mr. John "death squad" Negroponte being their Undersec of State for Latin America).

[Judi Lynn]

4. International Labour Conference silent on Colombia

International Labour Conference silent on Colombia
Tuesday, 12 June 2007, 10:32 am
Press Release: International Trade Union Federation
International Labour Conference silent on Colombia


PSI deeply regrets that the situation in Colombia will not be discussed within the Committee on the Application of Standards, now taking place during the 96th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva. Given the continuing seriousness of the situation in Colombia, PSI is disappointed and saddened that employer and government representatives to the ILC did not accept that Colombia be included in the final list of cases to be discussed.

Colombia had appeared on the preliminary list of cases to be examined during the conference, in relation to violations of ILO Conventions 87 (Freedom of Association) and 98 (Collective Bargaining).

Colombia holds the record of being the country in which the most men and women have been murdered as a direct result of their trade union work. In 2005, 70 trade unionists were assassinated. In 2006, the figure rose to 72 trade unionists. Acts of violence against trade unionists further include kidnappings, attempted assassinations, disappearances, threats, detentions, tortures and forced displacement, all in a climate of impunity.

A report produced by the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ITUC) in November 2006 highlighted the fact that in practice, few workers in Colombia can enjoy their fundamental rights to form and join a union, to bargain collectively and to strike, despite the fact that those were all enshrined in Colombia’s 1991 Constitution. Employers’ illegal anti-union acts usually go unpunished while the government’s practices during restructuring and privatisation of public companies can only be considered deliberate anti-union strategies.
(snip/...)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0706/S00179.htm