~snip~
Colombia is the poster child for neoliberalism in Latin America. Since the 1970s the United States—and the international financial institutions that it plays a leading role in, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund—have been pushing a development model on Latin America that calls, essentially, for governments to act in the interests of multinational capital. Governments are supposed to invite in foreign investment, and provide it with low taxes, low wages, and low regulation. They are supposed to cut back on social spending, and offer state enterprises up to the private sector. And, they’re supposed to quash any popular protest against these policies, using force if necessary. These policies have gone by names such as structural adjustment, the Washington Consensus, the Chicago Boys prescriptions (referring to the role of Milton Friedman and other economists from the University of Chicago), or neoliberalism. The United States has played a key role in the implementation of these policies—from working for the overthrow of elected socialist president Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, and their implementation there, to Plan Colombia today, by which the United States provides military and economic aid that goes directly to implementing this economic model and crushing protest.
Union leaders have been some of the most visible victims. In the U.S.-owned
Drummond mine in northern Colombia, three union leaders were assassinated in 2001. The company is currently facing a lawsuit in the United States for allegedly paying a paramilitary force to carry out the murders. Another U.S. company, Chiquita Brands, admitted to making payments for years to the paramilitaries. They claimed that they made the payments to protect their workers, but banana workers—and especially union activists—were the main victims among the hundreds murdered by paramilitaries during the 1990s and early 2000s.
More:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/06/105852.shtmlhttp://www.southernstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/images/sitepieces/drummond_protest.jpg
http://www.commondreams.org.nyud.net:8090/archive/wp-content/photos/0707_01.jpgDrummond Murders Case Explodes In Colombia & US
By Stephen Flanagan Jackson
LatinAmericanPost.com
He in his signature “guayabera” and me in my gringo cowboy shirt, we perch in the salubrious, balmy breeze of the Caribbean night in Cartagena, palm trees rustling over the balcony 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. Assassinated in 2001 by the right wing paramilitary because they were union leaders at the coal mines of Drummond Limited in northeast Colombia. A controversial civil lawsuit charges that the hitmen were hired by Drummond—or at least that is what a Washington, DC attorney claims. His cross-town rival, from James Baker’s law firm, begs to differ.
“If you hire the Mafia 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—$25 million. Drummond is sinking, sinking deeper into the Colombia quagmire, ironically piling up record profits from its worldwide coal sales, Israel its number one customer. Generous campaign donations from Drummond to both presidents—Bush and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia—will probably not stave off the inevitable—an embarrassing and revealing jury trial for wrongful deaths in a US Federal Court in its corporate hometown tentatively set for May 14.
The Colombia government March 20 announced an investigation into charges that the Birmingham, Alabama-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,” said Mario Iguaran, Colombia’s chief federal prosecutor.
That same day in a US Federal Court in Alabama, the judge permitted the deposition of the Colombia Canary to go forward…if the key witness is not murdered first.
“I saw Drummond’s top man in Colombia, Augusto Jiminez, pass a briefcase full of about $200,000 to the right wing paramilitary with the orders to kill the two workers ,” Rafael Garcia told a LatinAmericanPost.com journalist from his prison cell in Bogota where he 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. “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 has secret employees at Drummond’s La Loma coal mines,” continues Garcia in his private prison cubicle. “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,” swears Garcia . Drummond, Garcia charges, in cahoots with the Uribe administration, also was involved in the questionable takeover of a nearby oil concession from Llanos Oil.
The Colombia Canary, the caged Garcia continues singing a tune of corruption. “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.” Everything Garcia told the LatinAmericanPost.com journalist Jackson is repeated in his declaration…and he plans to repeat it all in another deposition in the next few weeks.
“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’ lawfirm 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.
Reversing a longstanding trend of stonewalling in the case, Drummond has now turned to aggressive denials through the media. Drummond released a statement saying it will not settle with the plaintiffs. “Drummond publicly states that it has not nor will it make any payments, agreements or transactions with illegal groups and emphatically denies that the company or any of its executives has had any involvement with the murder of three labor union leaders,” said the coal company from its Colombia headquarters on Bogota’s Avenida Chile. A Drummond attorney, Hugo Palacios, confirmed that “civil and criminal charges for slander and defamation have been filed against Rafael Garcia.”
Washington’s Plan Colombia—millions in US aid—is a lurking issue in the Drummond predicament. The intrigue surrounding the case begs the specific application of the Leahy Amendment . Sources expect a closer look by the Vermont Senator, alarmed by the fact that 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.More:
http://www.birminghamfreepress.com/v5/0307/index.html
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