The Daily Background

Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA, Chair of the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight) recently >alleged during a hearing that the Alabama coal corporation Drummond is tied to right-wing militias in Columbia, which are supressing and killing union activists. AP:

Drummond has denied having made any payments. The Colombian arm of the Alabama coal company faces a trial next month in Birmingham in a lawsuit alleging it paid for the murder of three union activists in Colombia in 2001. In Colombia, a paramilitary leader has been charged with ordering the slayings of two union leaders at a Drummond mine. The company has not been charged with a crime, but a probe continues.
[…]
“There are links between the paramilitaries, Drummond, the army and politicians,” [former Colombian army sergeant Edwin] Guzman said through an interpreter, admitting that he personally had no proof the company made payments to the paramilitaries. “At one point, the army captured 14 paramilitaries on Drummond property.”

Naturlly the corporation claims it’s totally innocent. This is pretty bad stuff, but if the allegations are true, it won’t be historically unprecedented in the least bit. Also, the AP provides some Columbia-specific background information:

Chiquita has acknowledged having paid paramilitaries $1.7 million in protection money over six years. The company, which sold its operations in Colombia three years ago, was fined $25 million by the Justice Department this year for making the payments from 1997-2004.

These are the same right-wing militias that have been engaged in the killings of union activists. Disgusting. Naturally, the Republicans are claiming that that was an isolated incident, and that this Alabama coal company is totally innocent and there’s no chance they could possibly be doing the same thing.

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