Congress, at USW Request, Seeks Emergency Protection for New Drummond Witness

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usw.org/usw/program/content/4060.php

Congress, at USW Request, Seeks Emergency Protection for New Drummond Witness
New Evidence Surfaces in Case Involving Murders of Three Colombian Trade Unionists

For Immediate Release June 13, 2007

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Congressman Bill Delahunt (D, Mass.) appealed yesterday to Colombia president Alvaro Uribe to take immediate measures to protect two men currently in prison there. The men may be important witnesses in a civil court case that accuses Drummond Ltd., the Colombian subsidiary of an American company, of utilizing paramilitary gunmen to kill three union leaders who were attempting to organize workers at its mines.

United Steelworkers (USW) president Leo W. Gerard wrote an urgent letter to the congressman last week upon learning about the new witnesses. The USW legal department, which is involved in the lawsuit against Drummond, received an email with a declaration from a new witness detailing Drummond’s regular payments to the AUC paramilitaries (a designated terrorist group), the complicity of the Colombian DAS with the AUC and a cover-up by the Colombian Fiscalia.

The declaration was made by Javier Ernesto Ochoa Quinonez, an inmate in La Modelo prison in Bogota. The USW legal department determined the declaration very credible, based on its involvement in six years of litigation for this case. Especially troubling to Gerard is the fact that the witness provided the same information to the Fiscalia in April with the promise of protection for himself and his family. To date, no such protection has been provided and the witness suspects that the information has been buried.

Ochoa is a former paramilitary member who claims that his unit carried out the murders at the direction of Drummond. The other witness, Rafael Garcia, is a former DAS director and claims he was present when a Drummond official paid the paramilitaries to take action against two of the three union workers who were murdered.

Congressman Delahunt chairs the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. Mr. Gerard is the president of the USW, a labor organization that represents more than 850,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. Both letters are attached.

CONTACT: Dan Kovalik [phone]