[1] Sintraminergetica has sued Drummond Company for allegedly conspiring with paramilitary groups to exterminate the union.

This suit was brought after years of claims of abuses ranging from forcing potential employees to undergo lie detector tests to reveal their political affiliation as a condition of employment, to the assassination of union leaders, their displacement from the mining zones, and accusations made against them of being guerilla supporters.

On October 5 of the same year, under similar circumstances, Gustavo Soler, the union's new president, was taken from a bus, taken away in a pick-up, tortured, and killed.

The court ruled that Sintraminergetica has standing to bring suit against Drummond and the Colombian managers of the company under the Alien Tort Statute.

[2] Drummond Company claims it has brought many jobs to the country and a level of stability to the mostly impoverished small town (corregimiento) of La Loma, Cesar, which has suffered civil unrest and corruption scandals.