Murder and payoffs taint business in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Source: USA Today

Murder and payoffs taint business in Colombia
Updated 11h 10m ago

By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY

BOGOTA, Colombia — At first, the allegations in a federal courtroom sounded like the sort of thing conspiracy-minded college freshmen dream up during late-night bull sessions. A major U.S. corporation stood accused of routinely funneling large sums of money to a vicious right-wing Latin American militia that the United States government officially had branded a terrorist organization.
But then the corporation involved, Chiquita Brands International (CQB) , admitted it had paid $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary unit known as "Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia" (AUC) over a six-year period ending in 2004. Suddenly, an episode that had seemed like rabid conspiracy-mongering was recast as unsavory corporate misdeed.

Last month, a U.S. District Court judge formally accepted a settlement of the charges between the Cincinnati-based company and the Justice Department. After pleading guilty to a felony, Chiquita was fined $25 million and required to institute an ethics program to prevent future violations. The company said that it made more than 100 payments to the paramilitaries, which controlled large swaths of Colombia's principal banana-growing region, to protect its workers from attacks and that it earlier had paid left-wing guerillas for the same reason. The Justice Department says the armed groups Chiquita paid are responsible for "a staggering loss of life" in Colombia.
(snip)

Paramilitaries thought by destroying unions they will take away the social base of the guerillas. … Many businessmen and government officials took advantage of the situation to get rid of the unions," says Gustavo Triana of the CUT, Colombia's largest labor federation.

Less than 5% of the Colombian labor force is unionized, vs. about 14% two decades ago, according to the union-affiliated Escuela Nacional Sindical in Medellin.





Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2007-10-29-chiquita-terrorists-colombia_N.htm

[Joanne98]

1. CEO of Chiquita gave money to terrorists AND the Swiftboat Veterns!

You can't make this stuff up!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/15/another-big-gop-supporter-funding-terrorists/

Another Big GOP Supporter Funding Terrorists?
By: Jamie Holly on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 3:10 PM - PDT (cross posted at Intoxination.net)

It appears that way:

Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming region.

The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with terrorist organizations in Colombia.

In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers at the Cincinnati-based company paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.

Not very GOP sounding, unless you know about Chiquita. Chiquita was run by Carl Lindner until March of 2002 (the time frame in which these crimes happened). If you are not from the Cincinnati area then you might not know old Carl, so let me fill you in:


Carl is a huge GOP supporter. If you go to the site Newsmeat and search for Carl Lindner and Carl Linder (some records have his name misspelled), you will get some interesting results. Here is a big one for you:

LINDER, CARL
CINCINNATTI, OH 45243

SWIFT BOAT VETS AND POW'S FOR TRUTH
$350,000
primary
10/14/04

Yup, some of the same money that went to these terrorist organizations also went to the old Swift Boaters. Very interesting indeed. As matter of fact, Wikipedia has this to say about Carl and Bush's relationship:

A close ally of George W. Bush, Lindner secured the use of Great American Ballpark for the Bush's re-election campaign on October 31, 2004, a few days before the 2004 Presidential Election.

Ahh, so maybe that explains why the company Carl used to run (and of which he still owns a large part) received the harsh punishment of a $25 million dollar fine. If this was some blue company like Costco doing this the CEO's would now be in Gitmo.

Remember - if you want to support terrorism then just give to the GOP. That will make sure you get off easy if you are busted supporting terrorist organizations.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/15/another-big-gop-supporter-funding-terrorists/

[Peace Patriot]

2. $25 million to the Bush Junta, nothing to the victims' families, and Colombia gets

rewarded with $4 billion MORE U.S. taxpayer dollars for the phony, failed, murderous "war on drugs." Oh, and Chiquita and their brethren global corporate predators (Drummond coal, Coca Cola, et al--ALSO involved in payments to rightwing death squads) get rewarded with billions of dollars in profit from cheap, unprotected labor and environmental destruction ("free trade").

So, every time you eat a banana, drink a Coke or turn on a lightbulb, think of the union organizers who were tortured, chainsawed and their body parts thrown into mass graves, and all the other innocents who have suffered such horrors, and when you lament the prevalence of illicit drugs in your community, and the ravages of these substances and the criminal gangs they attract, know that the multi-millions of dollars paid by these U.S.-based global corporate predators ALSO went to setting up rightwing paramilitary drug operations, while the U.S. "war on drugs" saw that they were well-armed (illicit weapons trafficking) and U.S.-based chemical companies also profiteered off you and me, by selling the government toxic pesticides to spray on the small farmers' lands (food crop lands, with a few coca plants for local use), killing their animals and damaging human DNA, in order to drive the peasant farmers off their lands into urban squalor, so that the big drug lords and Monsanto (ruinous corporate 'monoculture' for biofuels) can take them over.

Eventually, the huge democracy and social justice movement in South America (with leftist governments elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Nicaragua--and soon Paraguay) will result in peace, democracy and social justice in the dinosaur of the continent, Colombia. The leftist tide is overwhelming and the influence of the Bolivarians (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina) is growing. The Bolivarians oppose the U.S. "war on drugs" and U.S. corporate domination, and promote regional cooperation and independence, along with social justice. Even Colombia's rightwing leader, Uribe--who is trying to weather the paramilitary scandals (very close ties to his government)--has felt obliged to distance himself from the Colombian rightwing paramilitary plots against Hugo Chavez and the Andes democracies, and to warm up to Chavez (whom he asked to negotiate a hostage release with FARC; Uribe and Chavez have apparently developed a friendship).

Further, the people of Colombia can plainly see that there is a viable--indeed, highly successful-alternative to the many horrors of rightwing government and U.S./corporate interference, profiteering, brutal repression and domination. I've seen accounts of Colombian migrant workers in Venezuela, seeing the Bolivarian Revolution for themselves--workers' rights, clean elections, high citizen participation in politics and government, free medical care, free university educations, land reform, help to small businesses and worker coops, etc.--and carrying the word back home that another world is possible.

Maybe some day the same thing will happen here. Word will leak into the U.S., from the south, that another world is possible. (It's already happening, actually.) But meanwhile, the fascists and global corporate predators are hanging onto their dwindling number of client states (among them, Colombia, Peru, Mexico) with tooth and claw. And although there is something of a rebellion on the Colombia and Peruvian "free trade" deals, and on the "war on drugs," among the real Democrats in Congress, bear it mind that it was the phony Democrats (Bill Clinton and the DLC) who created "free trade" (global corporate predation) in the first place. And it looks like Emperor Hillary will be the corporate predators' rescuer. She shows every sign of being their "made" candidate. So, until we throw out the corporate-controlled ("trade secret") voting machines, and have a grass roots revolution, here, we're not likely to see much change in U.S. Latin American policy, although we WILL see vast change in Latin American U.S. policy. The South Americans have had it with us. And the Central Americans will be next.

[Blue_Tires]

3. well said nt

[Judi Lynn]

4. These countries have been the domain of U.S. predators for so long,

as they've been hell bent upon exploiting them, bleeding their work forces dry, extracting maximum profit with absolutely NO compensation given whatsoever, regarding no environmental concerns, no adequate provisions for workers' safety and benefits. Whenever they are caught, they claim they were consorting with the death squads in order to "protect" their employees. Their union employees, however, are the ones who keep getting murdered by the death squads. So how does that "protect" them?

Ohhhh. I see. They are "protecting" their employees from the unions which would assist them in getting better working conditions. That's how that works.

It would be worth waiting a lifetime to see the coporations finally have reached the end of the road, after screwing the American workers, finally being shown they are NOT going to wring even more blood, sweat, tears out of Latin American workers, and are going to have to start mending their ways, and start acting more like conscientious citizens of the world they share with the poor they have been raping.

It has always been their goal to break the backs of the unions, even hiring murderers to kill union workers right here in our own country. It's already part of our own history.

It's time for Latin America to reach a point of integration, and unity, and to turn these corporations toward civilization, rather than allowing them to bribe the elitists in every country who then fix the laws to benefit them and their pals, and look the other way while their own people are driven to the ground.

[Blue_Tires]

5. ttt