Chiquita Brands, an US based banana growing multinational has been condemned to pay a heavy fine by its financial backing of the AUC, the right wing paramilitary colombian group. But there's more to it that has been reported in the english speaking media...
As published in the USA Today webpage (
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-03-14-chiquita-terrorists_N.htm?csp=34):
Chiquita Brands International has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of doing business with a terrorist organization in Colombia and will pay a $25 million fine, the company said Wednesday.
Chiquita (CQB) and 10 unnamed executives and employees paid $1.7 million in checks and cash from 1997 to 2004 to a "violent, right-wing organization" called the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUD), or the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, according to the Justice Department's criminal-information filing in federal court.
Chiquita's ties to the paramilitary group were disclosed by the company to the Justice Department in 2003 and were reported by the news media a year later.
Under the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, Chiquita will plead guilty to one count of engaging in transactions with a global terrorist and pay a $25 million fine plus interest over five years. The company set aside money last year to cover the fine.
According to the government, AUD has kidnapped and murdered civilians and assassinated suspected guerrilla supporters. The government designated it a terrorist group in 2001, making it a federal crime for any U.S. person to make payments to the group.
But there is a little bit more info in some spanish speaking media (like in http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Dinero/multinacional/terror/elpepuint/20070321elpepuint_1/Tes):
Other companies are being investigated, amongst others Drummond, an US based coal mining company. For years the unions in the company have been denouncing the fact that three of its leaders were killed by the paramilitaries, who were receiving money from the company directors.
Chiquita did not only pay huge amounts to the “paras”. They also helped them smuggle 3,000 Ak-47 and millions of munitions into the country. IN the Uraba region, where the company carried out its operations, there were 62 massacres between 1997 and 2004, in which 432 persons were killed, many poor peasants working for the company. Also, another 60,000 had to leave their homes due to the paramilitary cleansing operations.
The 1.7 millions of American dollars that the company paid to the “paras” were not only instrumental for this bloodbath, but they were also vital to finance the terror policy of the “paras” and to expand their operations to other areas of the country.
We would expect more companies to be taken to the dock by similar exploits.
Once again the alliance between capital and terrorist violence is more than evident. Letting alone the use of the state and the military by big corporations to secure their interests in natural resources (and no particular middel east country springs to our mind).
See, cheap bananas come fro a price.
London AF.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-03-14-chiquita-terrorists_N.htm?csp=34): Chiquita Brands International has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of doing business with a terrorist organization in Colombia and will pay a $25 million fine, the company said Wednesday.
Chiquita (CQB) and 10 unnamed executives and employees paid $1.7 million in checks and cash from 1997 to 2004 to a "violent, right-wing organization" called the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUD), or the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, according to the Justice Department's criminal-information filing in federal court.
Chiquita's ties to the paramilitary group were disclosed by the company to the Justice Department in 2003 and were reported by the news media a year later.
Under the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, Chiquita will plead guilty to one count of engaging in transactions with a global terrorist and pay a $25 million fine plus interest over five years. The company set aside money last year to cover the fine.
According to the government, AUD has kidnapped and murdered civilians and assassinated suspected guerrilla supporters. The government designated it a terrorist group in 2001, making it a federal crime for any U.S. person to make payments to the group.
But there is a little bit more info in some spanish speaking media (like in
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Dinero/multinacional/terror/elpepuint/20070321elpepuint_1/Tes): Other companies are being investigated, amongst others Drummond, an US based coal mining company. For years the unions in the company have been denouncing the fact that three of its leaders were killed by the paramilitaries, who were receiving money from the company directors.
Chiquita did not only pay huge amounts to the “paras”. They also helped them smuggle 3,000 Ak-47 and millions of munitions into the country. IN the Uraba region, where the company carried out its operations, there were 62 massacres between 1997 and 2004, in which 432 persons were killed, many poor peasants working for the company. Also, another 60,000 had to leave their homes due to the paramilitary cleansing operations.
The 1.7 millions of American dollars that the company paid to the “paras” were not only instrumental for this bloodbath, but they were also vital to finance the terror policy of the “paras” and to expand their operations to other areas of the country.
We would expect more companies to be taken to the dock by similar exploits.
Once again the alliance between capital and terrorist violence is more than evident. Letting alone the use of the state and the military by big corporations to secure their interests in natural resources (and no particular middel east country springs to our mind).
See, cheap bananas come fro a price.
London AF.
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