March 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of the killings of union leaders Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita at the hands of Colombian paramilitary members from the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), allegedly funded, in part, by Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co. At the time of their murders, Valmore and Victor were the President and Vice-president of Sintramienergetica, the union that represents hundreds of Drummond’s coal workers in Colombia. Gustavo Soler, who then replaced Valmore as the union’s President, was killed within a year.
The killings effectively exterminated the union’s leadership and silenced, through intimidation, all other union members. As one of the largest unions in Colombia, Sintramienergetica survived and continues to fight for truth and justice. This blog post describes the leaders’ organizing work, the context in which they were killed, and the ongoing fight against impunity for their deaths.
The murders of Valmore Locarno, Victor Orcasita, and Gustavo Soler
On March 12, 2001, paramilitary members intersected a bus carrying Drummond workers returning home after a long shift at one of the Company’s coal mines, the Pribbenow mine. Paramilitaries boarded the bus, identified Victor and Valmore and forced them off. Paramilitary members killed Valmore in front of his co-workers. They took Victor to a different location, where they tortured and killed him. Leading up to their deaths, Valmore and Victor advocated for better work conditions at the Drummond coal mine and publicly denounced the violent actions by and questionable presence of paramilitary-armed groups in the region, and at the Drummond coal mine, including its cafeteria. Shortly after the killings, Gustavo Soler, Victor and Valmore’s close friend, assumed Sintramienergetica’s presidency, only to be assassinated seven months later. Since then, several lawsuits have been filed against Drummond for its alleged involvement in the hiring of paramilitary mercenaries to silence union activists.
For years, these killings lived in complete impunity, until prosecutors initiated formal investigations against former paramilitary members and a Drummond contractor, Jaime Blanco. In 2013, Blanco was convicted for the murders of Valmore and Victor. In his testimony, Blanco (and paramilitary members in their own testimonies) explained how a carefully-designed financial scheme between his enterprise, a food services company, and Drummond, financed the AUC’s Bloque Norte, the region’s deadly paramilitary front. Allegedly, the union’s efforts to advocate for improved work conditions while publicly denouncing paramilitary groups, led to the decision to exterminate the union’s leadership, and characterize them as “leftist guerrilla sympathizers.” Today, Blanco remains in jail, but his case is now being examined by the JEP, a special post-conflict tribunal. Blanco hopes that the JEP’s review of the case will result in a reduced sentence and special sanctions in exchange for contributions towards truth and reconciliation. His submission and proposed plan are currently under review (see our blog on combating corporate impunity to learn more about the Blanco case and opportunities in the Colombian Transitional Justice process).
The Drummond Connection
While the depth of Drummond’s responsibility for these killings and multiple other human rights violations remains elusive, Blanco’s testimony and that of several former paramilitary members and multiple victims and affected community members implicate Drummond in a financing scheme that benefited a violent paramilitary group. Drummond knew that it was operating in a context of increased violence and increasing unrest. In fact, it was impossible to ignore the political and social environment in the area immediately surrounding its mining operations and throughout the region of Cesar, Colombia. This included violence against union members, and a generalized pattern of guerrilla and paramilitary violence displacing communities around Drummond’s coal mine. At a minimum, Drummond took a business-as-usual approach in a conflict-ridden setting while increasing its coal exports around the world.
Several lawsuits, representing the union leaders' families and affected communities, were filed against Drummond in Alabama, but none of them have meaningfully been resolved. However, the declarations obtained in many of these processes also corroborate previous testimonies that allegedly point to a clear financial scheme involving Drummond that benefited the AUC with millions of dollars.
The pursuit of truth and justice
Last December, after years of lapses in the investigations, Colombia’s prosecutor’s office, Fiscalia, formally accused two Drummond executives for financing paramilitary groups and complicity in gross human rights violations. This has been the first promising step toward accountability for Drummond and for companies involved in human rights abuses during the Colombian conflict. (In 2004, Chiquita Brands International, the U.S.-based banana company, officially accepted responsibility for financing paramilitary groups in Colombia after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. However, there are no convictions in Colombia while the complex multi-district litigation process against Chiquita moves through a federal court in Florida).
Civil society called for the two Drummond executives indicted for gross human rights violations, Jose Miguel Linares, Drummond’s president and Augusto Jimenez, Drummond’s former president, to submit their cases to the JEP with the hope that they would contribute toward truth and justice by clarifying Drummond’s alleged role and participation in the conflict. They did not present their cases to the JEP, a missed-window.
Although the fight for justice and truth has been slow and painful, Sintramienergetica’s members, including those who personally witnessed the moment Victor and Valmore were violently removed from the bus (and one of them shot in front of their eyes), continue to fight for truth and accountability. Last month, in celebration of the lives of the assassinated union leaders, the union hosted a commemorative event in which they called for accountability, not only for the killings of their friends, but also for Drummond’s involvement in several other alleged human rights violations, including displacement and the negative impact of Drummond’s coal extraction for the environment and surrounding communities (see Sintramienergetica’s Facebook page for a full video of the event). In the midst of continuous victimization, union members and victims’ families convened to talk about the past, the present and the future of the coal industry with the hope for truth and justice. Sintramienergetica’s relentless fight specifically demands that Blanco contribute to the truth seeking process at the JEP and accountability through an exhaustive investigation.
Colombia’s civil conflict and the role of companies
These killings took place in a complicated conflict setting. Colombia’s decades-long conflict, a civil war between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, and official security forces, caused gross human rights violations, including forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, displacement, and a generalized and pervasive pattern of continuous violence mainly affecting marginalized communities. (Read more on our blog on corporate accountability and transitional justice in Colombia and beyond for more background on this issue). The power struggle for control over land has further fueled the conflict. Private actors, including multinational companies, further exacerbated the complexity of the Colombian armed conflict by directly financing illegal armed groups and supporting or benefiting from the conflict. In this context, Colombia began a peace process in 2016, which culminated with the current transitional justice system that established a Truth Commission (CEV for its Spanish acronym), the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP for its Spanish acronym), and a Special Unit to locate disappeared victims. (See our blog on combating corporate impunity to learn more about opportunities in the Colombian Transitional Justice Process).
Although many of the human rights violations that occurred during the armed conflict led to administrative and judicial processes, as well as processes within formal transitional justice mechanisms, the role of economic actors, such as companies, has barely been explored. Economic actor accountability in this context is rare and impunity for anti-union violence and calculated efforts to exterminate union leaders remains the norm. (This is not a problem unique to Colombia, which is why we created the Corporate Accountability and Sustainable Peace Lab to further explore these issues and advance corporate accountability in transitional settings).
Remembering Valmore, Victor, and Gustavo
Perhaps one of the best ways to uphold the pillars of transitional justice, including truth and reconciliation, is to remember and celebrate the lives of those who fought for justice and advocated for their fellow workers with the knowledge that doing so posed serious risks. Upon reflection of the impunity that continues to accompany this case, and many others in Colombia (and beyond), it is important to highlight the role of victims’ families and those directly impacted by these killings, such as Sintramienergetica, by listening to their concerns and specific demands. Valmore, Victor and Gustavo’s lives are not forgotten, and by sharing their story and the fights against impunity, we keep their memory alive.
Tatiana Devia is a Staff Attorney at Corporate Accountability Lab.
This post is also available in Spanish.
