The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

Marblehead Reporter
Delegation to provide protection in Colombia
October 26, 2006

To the editor:
Local activist groups have been working to help villages near the Cerrejon mine in Colombia where corporate coal mining is displacing indigenous people without any concern or compensation. We are involved because some of that coal has been burned at the Salem Power Plant to heat our homes and light our bulbs while larger amounts of coal from the Cerrejon mine are burned in Dominion's southeastern U.S. power plants. In two weeks, we are taking a delegation to accompany the union at the Cerrejon mine as it enters into contract negotiations.

A group of us met with a representative of Dominion Energy last week to ask the company to play their part in making the mine owners respect the human rights of their workers and to protect indigenous communities in the region from utter destruction. We asked them to write a letter, to consider sending a representative, to conduct their own investigation, and/or to help sponsor a representative from Amnesty International who will be accompanying our group. They have promised to give us a reply before we leave.

During our meeting, Dominion informed us that much of the coal now burned in the Salem power plant comes from the Drummond mine in Colombia. Drummond, a U.S. company, is currently being sued in an American court for complicity in the murder of three union leaders there in 2001. Violence against union leaders tends to intensify during contract negotiations, which is why the union at the Cerrejon mine specifically asked if we would be there with them during their negotiations. Given the level of violence against unions - and the level of impunity, in Colombia - our delegation of 14 Americans will be their only protection against intimidation, assault and possibly worse.

We believe that Dominion can be an important voice for human rights in Colombia. The companies that buy this coal are in a powerful position to pressure their suppliers to respect the rights of local populations. We are hopeful that Dominion will stand with us on these issues.

Avi Chomsky
Shore Avenue
Salem

Lynn Nadeau
Surf Street
Marblehead

Jeff Barz-Snell
Salem

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