The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

Drummond Coal of Alabama, a family owned corporation
worth billions, is going on trial in Birmingham, AL May
14, 2007 in federal court, for the murder of union
organizers. For years, the Bush nominated federal
judge, Karen Bowdre, clamped a silence order on the
plaintiff attorneys, which led to a news blackout on
the case. However, a 3 judge panel of the 11th Circuit
Court lifted the gag and now stories are coming out.

Drummond closed most of its mines in Alabama,
abandoning its union workers here, to move its primary
operations to Colombia, where they have two strip mines
they value at $2 Billion dollars. They have a private
army protecting them from the Colombian people and from
union organizers. Colombian witnesses say they have
witnessed Drummond Execs pay right-wing paramilitaries,
connected with the Colombian armed forces and right-
wing government of President Uribe, to murder union
organizers.

In case people don't know, Colombia is the third
highest recipient of US aid, after Israel and Egypt.
The nation is deeply repressive and is the primary
source of cocaine coming to the US (I believe that the
battles with the Medillin and Cali cartels was in fact
a turf battle, and the CIA and US military won and took
over the trafficking of cocaine into our country).
Colombia is, of course, a potential launching ground
for an invasion of Venezuela, something being planned
by the Bush/Cheney/Rove cabal.

This trial is of greatest importance and should gain
national and international attention. Please contact
you local media to focus on it next month. Below is a
B'ham News article in today's business section. There
is another AP article I can't find on the net about a
Colombian senator who has announced that Drummond
conspired to assassinate him (Sen. Gustavo Petro).

Please focus on this trial. Drummond is, in my
opinion, a terrorist corporation, one of the US
terrorist organizations. And its offices are just a
few blocks from my home!

Rev. Jack Zylman 1321 16th Avenue South Birmingham, AL
35205-6020 phone: 205-933-7678 cell: 205-821-0650

-------------------------------------------------------
------

Plaintiffs want surprise witness
Would testify he saw company supply outlaws
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
RUSSELL HUBBARD News staff writer

Birmingham News
http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/1177488950215900.xml&coll=2

Lawyers suing Drummond Co. for the slaying of Colombian
union activists said in legal documents Tuesday they
have found a new witness who plans to say in court the
company supported armed outlaw groups in the South
American nation.

Edwin Manuel Guzman was a sergeant in the Colombian
Army and is now in that country's witness protection
program, according to a motion filed in U.S. District
Court in Birmingham.

Guzman, the filings said, served in a Colombian army
unit that helped guard Drummond's coal mine and rail
lines. He is prepared to testify that he saw the
Birmingham-based company supply a right-wing armed
outlaw group and direct its military activities.

Attempts to reach lawyers for Drummond, who have
vigorously denied any wrongdoing by the company, were
unsuccessful. Last month, Drummond released a statement
saying it has never gotten involved with outlaw groups
and will not settle the union-death case out of court.

The dispute is centered in northwest Colombia, where
Drummond stands accused of hiring the still-unknown
killers of three union activists in 2001. The Colombian
energy workers union and the families of the three
slain labor leaders sued Drummond for the deaths in
Birmingham federal court in 2002. They used a federal
law passed in the 1700s that allows U.S. companies to
be sued in America for civil injuries committed abroad.

Special permission:

Though the union and the family sued, they never
specified who did the killing, only that Drummond
directed it. The trial is scheduled to begin July 9.
Because the trial is so close, the judge in the case
will have to give special permission for surprise
witness Guzman to testify. According to Monday's
filing, Guzman's testimony would consist of eyewitness
and second-hand information that attempts to connect
Drummond to specific armed groups.

The filing says Guzman plans to testify that between
1999 and 2002 he saw Drummond supply members of the
armed group AUC with food and vehicles. AUC - the
Spanish acronym for United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia - was in the area at Drummond's request to
resist the simultaneous presence of left-wing
guerrillas, the filing says.

AUC is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
State Department and has stated its money comes from
drug trafficking and donations from sponsors seeking
protection from other armed groups. Drummond's senior
Colombian corporate security official, retired
Colombian Army Col. Luis Carlos Rodriguez, coordinated
relations between the company and the militia, Guzman
says in the filing.

Guzman goes on to say in a deposition attached to the
filing that Rodriguez told him his Colombian Army unit
"had no business" interfering with AUC's military
activities. Guzman says in the deposition he planned to
"ambush" AUC units on his turf, but that Rodriguez
approached him in a black sport-utility vehicle and
told him to lay off.

Guzman goes on to say he was then relieved of his
position as platoon commander and placed in a macabre
new position.

"It was at this time that I personally began to work in
`legalizing' civilian victims of the paramilitaries ...
meaning we would plant guerrilla uniforms on and
weapons in civilians that AUC killed in order to make
the killings appear legitimate," Guzman says in the
deposition.

Cites motorcycles:

The former sergeant, according to the filing, is also
prepared to give testimony about events that were
related to him by other people. His deposition says a
member of an armed outlaw group told him Drummond hired
a militia leader called "Cebolla" to stop guerrilla
attacks on its rail lines. Drummond then equipped the
Cebolla group with motorcycles for the task, the filing
says. Guzman also plans to testify that he was told by
another party that Cebolla was responsible for killing
the three labor leaders who worked at the Drummond
mine, the motion says.

Drummond, started in Walker County in the 1930s, began
developing its Colombian coal mine in the 1980s. It now
produces 24 million tons a year, more than every coal
mine in Alabama combined. A second $1 billion mine near
the savanna town of La Loma is under development.

If Guzman's testimony is allowed, he will be the second
Colombian insider at the trial. This year, U.S.
District Judge Karon Bowdre, who presides over the
case, ruled that a former officer of the Colombian
secret service can testify. Rafael Garcia, who is in
prison in Colombia after a corruption conviction, says
he saw Drummond officials pay members of an armed
group. The Colombian government is investigating;
Drummond has sued Garcia in Colombia for defamation.

Colombia is filled with armed outlaw groups - both
left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary
organizations - after more than 40 years of civil war.
They battle each other, the government, drug
traffickers and civilians who are tired of it all.
Killing union leaders is not uncommon in Colombia, with
800 labor-related deaths since 2001, according to
Colombian government statistics.

E-mail: rhubbard@bhamnews.com

© 2007 The Birmingham News © 2007 al.com All Rights
Reserved.

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