Colombian prosecutor probing U.S. firms in Washington visit

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Colombian prosecutor probing U.S. firms in Washington visit
The Associated Press
Published: April 29, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: The country's chief prosecutor stood between the white plastic-sheathed remains of two dismembered teenage sisters. On the rust-colored dirt around him lay remains of nearly 60 newly unearthed victims of paramilitary death squads.

Not just the executioners but those who bankrolled them must be brought to justice, Mario Iguaran told reporters last week at the mass grave in Colombia's eastern plains.

"You can clearly see that they didn't pay for security, but for blood," said Iguaran, who is in Washington D.C. this week seeking aid for his overburdened office and help obtaining evidence against U.S.-based multinationals he's investigating for allegedly financing death squads.

Over the past year, authorities have jailed paramilitary bosses and their political cronies on charges of building private armies to eliminate mutual enemies, steal land and enrich themselves.
(snip)

Among U.S. multinationals into which Iguaran has opened investigations are Chiquita Brands and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co. Inc. They are sure to be subjects of his meetings with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday.


Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/30/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Paramilitary-Backers.php

[tularetom]

1. He might as well skip the meeting with Gonzales

Just sayin.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Columbia is our secret war. I hope congress cuts funding drastically. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

3. You're sure right about that, and it's not just a secret war against labor leaders,

leftists and peastans in Colombia--thousands slaughtered--it's a war against the Andean democracies! Uribe/Bush's goons have been training an army in the oil rich provinces of Bolivia, to help the rich landowners to break away from the federal government, so that no oil/gas profits go to help Bolivia's poor. Absolutely disgusting operation funded by our tax dollars to Colombia's high-placed rightwing paramilitaries. They were also planning to assassinate Hugo Chavez (a plot recently disclosed in the huge Colombia paramilitary scandal).

[Judi Lynn]

4. CNN: Colombia prosecutor investigates U.S. firms

Colombia prosecutor investigates U.S. firms
POSTED: 1308 GMT (2108 HKT), April 30, 2007

~snip~
Iguaran meets with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday. With both, he is sure to talk about Chiquita Brands and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co. Inc.

Thousands of Colombians disappeared in the past decade, most victims of right-wing militias that emerged in the 1980s to fight leftist rebel groups.

The paramilitaries quickly evolved into mafias, enriching themselves through cocaine trafficking, theft and extortion in large chunks of the country, particularly the Caribbean coast.

Large landowners, politicians and corporations bankrolled the militias to expand their holdings, while police and military officers turned a blind eye.
(snip)

Many jailed paramilitary bosses think that just as they were compelled to confess their crimes under Uribe's peace pact, so should their pinstriped backers.

The paramilitaries' main spokesman, Ivan Duque, told The Associated Press in Medellin's Itagui prison this month that many commanders intend to begin speaking publicly about "the financing by the banana industry, some coal companies, big national businesses."
(snip)

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/30/colombia.paramilitary.ap/

[Judi Lynn]

5. Information on these firms already uncovered by Iguarán, from another article:

Chiquita’s dirty business
Susan Abad.
Apr 19, 2007

~snip~
Attorney general Mario Iguarán said that the weapons were used by the paramilitaries to push leftist guerrillas out of Uraba, where Chiquita Brands had 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres) of banana trees.
“There was a criminal relationship: money and some weapons in exchange for the bloody pacification of Uraba,” said Iguarán.

Former Mayor Cuartas said a wave of assassinations and massacres was how the region was “pacified.”
“How can you explain that in only three years, between 1995 and 1997, in one municipality with 100,000 people, 1,200 people were selectively murdered, all of them from social and union movements opposed to the multinational companies or the government’s project?” she asked.

But Chiquita is not the only company under fire for its ties to paramilitary groups, which before their 2004 demobilization caused numerous massacres, murders and mass collective displacement.

The US mining firm Drummond Company, which operates the country’s second-largest open-air coal mine, has been fighting a trial in Alabama for the last four years. A Colombian coal miners’ union accused the company of paying paramilitaries for killing three of its leaders — Valmore Locarno Rodríguez, Víctor Hugo Orcasita and Gustavo Soler Mora — in 2001.

Rafael García, a former official with Colombia’s central intelligence agency, the Administrative Security Department, has been jailed since May 2006 for allegedly discarding the agency’s files on the paramilitaries.

García said that he had attended a meeting in which a Drummond executive gave a paramilitary a suitcase filled with cash as payment for the death of the union members.

The Coca-Cola Company has also been accused by the National Food Industry Workers’ Union as an accomplice to the murders of seven union members by paramilitaries between 1995 and 1996. The company is also accused of causing the forced displacement of dozens of Colombian workers and, in two cases, forced exile.
(snip/)

http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5112

[Joanne98]

6. Colombian Prosecutor Probing U.S. Firms

Source: AP

By TOBY MUSE
Associated Press Writer

April 30, 2007, 11:53 AM EDT

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's chief prosecutor stood between the white plastic-sheathed remains of two dismembered teenage sisters. On the rust-colored dirt around him lay remains of nearly 60 newly unearthed victims of paramilitary death squads.

Not just their killers but those who bankrolled them must be brought to justice, Mario Iguaran told reporters last week at the mass grave in the country's eastern plains.

"You can clearly see that they didn't pay for security, but for blood," Iguaran said.

He spoke ahead of a trip to Washington this week to seek aid for his overburdened office and help obtain evidence against U.S.-based multinationals he's investigating for allegedly financing the paramilitaries.



Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-paramilitary-backers,0,524770.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

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Chiquita Brands and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co. Inc.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Colombia probes US firms' financing of death squads

Colombia probes US firms' financing of death squads
AP, BOGOTA
Tuesday, May 01, 2007, Page 7

~snip~
With thousands of victims still to be discovered, Iguaran is now going after the remaining axis of the paramilitary project: the businesses that helped paid the bills.

Among US multinationals into which Iguaran has opened investigations are Chiquita Brands and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co Inc.

Fruit giant Chiquita agreed in March to pay US$25 million to settle with the US Department of Justice after acknowledging that its wholly owned Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, secretly funneled US$1.7 million to the death squads operating in zones where it had banana plantations.

In 2001, a Banadex ship was used to unload 3,000 rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition for the paramilitaries. At the time, the paramilitaries were consolidating control of the Uraba banana region through massacres and assassinations. Chiquita later sold Banadex but still buys Colombian bananas.
(snip)

Cincinnati-based Chiquita says it was a victim of paramilitary extortion. In a statement it said its payments to the militias "were always motivated by our good faith concern for the safety of our employees." Iguaran disagrees.

"This was a criminal relationship," he said in announcing his probe. "Money and arms and, in exchange, the bloody pacification of Uraba." US lawmakers are beginning to take notice.
(snip)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/05/01/2003359035