By Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – A mining union official testified today that the head of Drummond coal in Colombia threatened him after the killings of three labor leaders whose families blame the company for the murders.
Juan Aguas Romero, the education secretary for two unions in the South American country, testified in the second day of a civil lawsuit accusing Drummond Limited of having paramilitary gunmen kill the three men.
Alabama-based Drummond denies any involvement with the murders or with militias in Colombia.
Aguas said Augusto Jimenez, president of Drummond's operations in Colombia, made threatening comments during meetings that followed the gunshot killings of two union leaders in 2001 and the slaying of a third union official months later.
Jimenez, a Harvard University-educated lawyer, showed little reaction to the testimony by Aguas.
Attorneys involved in the civil trial say the case marks the first time a lawsuit filed under the alien tort law against a U-S company has made it before jurors.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)