Arrest made in murders of union activists at Colombian mine owned by Alabama coal company

[Judi Lynn]

Arrest made in murders of union activists at Colombian mine owned by Alabama coal company
September 8, 2010 3:28 PM

The brother of the former Inspector General of Colombia has been arrested in connection with the murder of two union activists working for Drummond, a multinational coal company based in Birmingham, Ala.

Jaime Blanco Maya allegedly ordered the killing of labor rights activists Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya in Colombia in 2001, according to Colombia Reports. The arrest was ordered by a human rights prosecutor in Bogota who is investigating the killings.

Blanco Maya was working as a Drummond contractor at the time the unionists were killed, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports. The crimes occurred during a 2001 incident in which a bus carrying several dozen workers from Drummond's La Loma mine was stopped by 15 gunmen -- some wearing Colombian military uniforms -- who forced off the two leaders of the Sintramienergetica union local.

Locarno, the local's president, was shot on the spot. The tortured body of Orcasita, the local's vice president, was found a few days later. Gustavo Soler, the man who succeeded Locarno as president, was also murdered not long after taking office.

It was later found that the killings were carried out by members of the AUC federation of right-wing militias, which disbanded in 2006 as part of a peace process with the Colombian government.

Drummond has prevailed in three lawsuits over alleged human rights abuses at its operations in Colombia. The most recent suit was filed last June and alleged that Drummond paid millions of dollars to a Colombian paramilitary group responsible for the deaths of 67 people in an effort to disrupt union activities at the company's South American mine and railway operations.

More:
http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/09/arrest-made-in-murders-of-union-activists-at-colombian-mine-owned-by-alabama-coal-company.html