(Alabama-based) Drummond Faces Fine in Colombia After Allegedly Dumping Coal into Sea

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Wall Street Journal

February 6, 2013, 9:57 a.m. ET
Drummond Faces Fine in Colombia After Allegedly Dumping Coal into Sea

By Dan Molinski

BOGOTA--Colombia's second-largest coal exporter, Alabama-based Drummond Co., is facing a fine or other sanctions after it allegedly dumped nearly 1,900 metric tons of coal into the sea to prevent its barge from sinking, an spokesman for the Environment Ministry said Wednesday.

Drummond, which aims to produce more than 30 million metric tons in Colombia this year after producing around 27 million in 2012, appears to have dumped the coal around Jan. 12 near the northern port of Santa Marta, according to port authorities who have been using photographs taken on the day in question as part of their investigation.

Representatives at Drummond have not responded to several phone calls and an email. A Drummond official in Colombia told local media the company doesn't plan to comment until the investigation is complete.

Environment Minister Juan Gabriel Uribe is meeting with officials at the Santa Marta port Wednesday and could announce any fine or other penalty later today or Thursday, his spokesman said by telephone. The spokesman said the company might be cited for not reporting the incident in a timely fashion.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130206-708934.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_middleHeadlines

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. They should have off-loaded it onto another barge,...cheap bastards.

[valerief]

2. Oh, no, not another $10 fine!

[Sunlei]

7. The Gov of Colombia could pull an Iceland and take their entire bank/company away.

Colombias politicans, Gov. is for Colombians? or corrupt, bribed, owned by the Alabama mining industry?

I lived in Colombia, SA for a while. Only place I had a machine gun pointed at me and bribed myself out of that situtation There is no middle class, the poor work for the wealthy. Alabama mining must love the slave labor in their mines.

[starroute]

3. Oh -- them again

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Drummond

The Drummond Company has been the subject of numerous lawsuits regarding the murders of 70 union miners and railroad workers, collectively. The murdered Colombians were killed by the notorious paramilitary group, United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which had been hired by Drummond to act as security. In addition to those killed, a lawsuit against Drummond describes "how hundreds of men, women, and children were terrorized in their homes, on their way to and from work… innocent people killed in or near their homes or kidnapped to never to return home, their spouses and children being beaten and tied up, and people being pulled off buses and summarily executed on the spot."

According to U.S. diplomatic cables sent between 2006-2010 and released by WikiLeaks, Drummond paid paramilitaries for protection of its Colombian operations. An October 2006 cable said there were significant security improvements in the northeastern region of Colombia where Drummond operates due to private security operations in the area, including roving patrols along the company's railroad from their La Loma mine to the port in Santa Marta. The cable went on to say that these private security guards were former paramilitaries. Over the course of four years U.S. Embassy officials sent 15 diplomatic cables to Washington which expressed concern over the company's labor disputes, lax environmental practices and apparent links with paramilitary death squads.

A federal Court in Alabama began a civil case against Drummond in 2010 for the alleged paramilitary links, in a case that is still underway. Victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia accuse Drummond of paying the paramilitary organization United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1999 and 2005, during which time 116 civilians were murdered in the region where the coal company operates, allegedly by the right-wing militia. The civil case also seeks compensation for the relatives of several people who were murdered, which they claim was for refusing to sell their land to to make way for the company's railroad.

[Sunlei]

4. Alabamas old school chain gang coal mines, must be a hellish place to work in South America.

The para military are their guards. Are they shipping the cheap to mine, no regulations, kill any complainers, South American coal to the USA?

[magic59]

5. If they did that in the US

they would get a big tax right-off.

[Sunlei]

6. good comment, Alabama coal mines did do that in the USA, and yes they made a fortune.

ref http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/watch/