Does your banana fund terrorism?
Mar 15 2007 14:20
Quote:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Banana company Chiquita Brands International was charged Wednesday with doing business with a terrorist organization.Court documents filed Wednesday are an indication the company has settled a lengthy Justice Department investigation into its financial dealings with terrorist groups in Colombia.
Federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers did business with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The group is described in court documents as a violent right-wing organization that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group.
Details of the settlement were not included in court documents. But Chiquita said last month it had set aside $25 million to resolve the dispute. The company said the investigation involved a former subsidiary that made payments under pressure to ensure the safety of its employees.
Read More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6480422,00.html
It would seem only just for the $25 million to go to the Colombian agricultural workers unions, who take much of the brunt of UDF violence, but who said this is a just world?
Mar 15 2007 20:22
#2
Joseph K. wrote:
they paid a right wing death squad not to attack their workers? quite a nice little earner then, right wing death squadding. troublesome workers? we'll sort them out. no troublesome workers? pay us or you'll have less of them.
It might also have been for protection from FARC. Although I read this article on the BBC and it said they also paid FARC too, but who knows if thats true.
Mar 16 2007 18:37
#3
Chiquita, Its Workers and Colombia's Death Squads
By AL KREBS
http://www.counterpunch.org/krebs03162007.html
they paid a right wing death squad not to attack their workers? quite a nice little earner then, right wing death squadding. troublesome workers? we'll sort them out. no troublesome workers? pay us or you'll have less of them.