It's not clear if Ochoa meant to write Alfredo Araújo in his statement. Alvaro Araújo, Alfredo's cousin and a former senator now jailed on charges of working with paramilitaries in the same region, has never worked for Drummond.

Ochoa's affidavit also alleges that Blanco identified the two union leaders when they were pulled from the company bus. The union had complained about Blanco's food for months, and Drummond dropped his concession just before the killings, union members told The Miami Herald after the murders.

Blanco could not be reached for comment.

Ochoa added that Drummond paid the paramilitaries a ''tax'' for every ton of coal shipped out by the company. The U.S. government has listed the paramilitaries as a terrorist group, making any financial dealings with them illegal.

Another former paramilitary, Alberto Visbal, who took the government's amnesty deal and is not in jail, said in his affidavit that he was present at two meetings between Drummond Colombia President Augusto Jiménez and a top paramilitary leader, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo. He did not hear everything that was said but claimed another paramilitary fighter who attended told him that Jiménez paid Tovar Pupo $200,000 to ''neutralize'' union leaders Locarno and Orcasita.

Visbal's testimony parallels that of Rafael García, a former computer systems chief for DAS, the Colombian presidential security unit. García is serving a 24-year sentence for erasing information about drug traffickers.

An affidavit by García submitted earlier to the Alabama court alleges he attended a meeting at which Jiménez gave a paramilitary leader money to ''undertake violent actions against union workers at Drummond.'' In his sworn statement, Visbal says he saw García at one of the meetings.

REACTION IN CONGRESS

The murders of scores of Colombian labor leaders has put a Colombia-U.S. free trade agreement in danger as Democrats in the U.S. Congress push for more protections for unionists. Colombia's largest union umbrella group has said that one union member is killed every three days here, making this country the world's most dangerous place to be labor activist.

Last month, six U.S. representatives, including Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who is actively involved in Latin American issues, sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging him to investigate whether Drummond paid the paramilitaries and requested U.S. government help in providing security for two of the witnesses, Guzmán and García.

Drummond is not the only U.S. company under scrutiny for alleged links to the paramilitaries.

In February, Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty to criminal U.S. charges of paying $1.7 million in protection money to paramilitaries over a seven-year period ending in 2004. Chiquita was fined $25 million.

ILRF lawyers earlier this month filed a civil suit against Chiquita in Washington, accusing the company of paying off both paramilitary and guerrilla fighters responsible for the deaths of 173 people in the areas where the company operated. Chiquita also is under investigation in Colombia for weapons trafficking.

Legal advocacy groups in the United States, including the ILRF, also have filed suit in Florida against Coca-Cola and two of its subsidiaries for alleged links to the murder of several union leaders in Colombia in the mid-1990s. The suit was thrown out of court, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta is considering an appeal to reinstate the case.

Llanos Oil, a Dutch company, also has asked the Colombian Attorney General's office to investigate Drummond for allegedly using its connections with the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to secure rights to an oil exploration concession earlier held by a Llanos company.

García, the DAS computer chief, testified before a Colombian court that then-DAS chief Jorge Noguera ordered him to investigate Llanos. García said that when he didn't find any suspicious activity, Noguera sought to trump up charges against the company ``by order of the presidency.''

Colombian prosecutors are investigating Noguera because during his time as head of DAS, the intelligence agency gave the paramilitaries lists with the names of labor leaders and activists, some of whom were later murdered.

Llanos provided The Miami Herald with the Ochoa affidavit.

Gerardo Reyes reports for El Nuevo Herald.

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