Chiquita Brands accused of funding death squads

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

Banana importer Chiquita Brands International got hit with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit yesterday filed by the families of nearly 400 murdered or tortured Colombian civilians who accuse the U.S.-based company of funding terrorists.

The $7.86 billion suit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court, notes that Chiquita has recently pled guilty to criminal charges of making payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC, between 1997 and 2004.

"While Chiquita paid a fine to the United States government of $25 million, none of that money went to any of the victims," said attorney Jonathan Reiter.

"Chiquita has admitted to making payments to the AUC and now it should be held accountable by the families of people who were murdered by this organization.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/11/14/2007-11-14_chiquita_brands_accused_of_funding_death.html

[unpossibles]

1. same old stuff - used to be known as United Fruit

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/47/043.html

[SharonAnn]

3. Lately owned by Carl Lindner(?) of Cincinnati right-wing fame

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Carl_H._Lindner\

"Since 1994, Carl Lindner and his Chiquita banana empire have been Exhibit A in the fight to reform campaign finance. Through his insurance company, American Financial Group, Lindner controls nearly 40 percent of Chiquita. And through his millions in campaign contributions to both parties, he has persuaded the nation's top politicians to marshal U.S. foreign policy to fight Chiquita's trade war against the European Union" <4>

Common Cause reported in 2004 that Lindner raised at least $200,000 for President George W. Bush for Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. and contributed $200,000 for the Bush-Cheney inauguration ($100,000 from Lindner and $100,000 from American Financial Group), "double the $100,000 contribution limit (the inaugural committee refunded the excess money, only to have Lindner funnel the money through AFG). During the 2002 Senate elections, Lindner and his family contributed $450,000 to Republicans. In the 2004 presidential campaign, Lindner was one of the first 23 'Rangers' who raised at least $200,000 in bundled contributions for Bush. He hosted a September 2003 fundraiser at his home in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, which raised an estimated $1.7 million for Bush."

In return, Common Cause says, Lindner got: "The World Trade Organization forced European Union nations to open their markets to Chiquita bananas, while Lindner gave substantial financial support to the Democratic Party under former President Bill Clinton and to President George W. Bush. The move by the WTO accelerated a trade dispute between the EU and the United States that, in 2003, threatened to add more than $6 billion in tariffs on U.S. products, including $2.2 billion in tariffs on products manufactured in political battleground states."


http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/96mojo_400/lindner.html

Banana Republican: Carl H. Lindner (#4)
In addition to being a big Dole backer, Lindner has served as a mentor and colleague to two of the best-known financial crooks of our time, Charles Keating and Michael Milken.

Carl H. Lindner, 76, Cincinnati, Ohio. Donated $337,500 since 1993. Party: Mostly D. He gave one $250,000 soft-money gift to the Democrats, and $42,000 in party donations to the GOP. He also gave $31,000 to 31 candidates, nearly all of them Republican.
View Lindner's itemized contributions according to the MoJo 400 searchable database.


By L.J. Davis

Carl Lindner, the tan eminence of American finance (Lindner always wears tan), is chair and CEO of Chiquita Brands International Inc. This may help explain why Sen. Bob Dole, a major recipient of Lindner contributions (and frequent flier on Lindner company jets), has been a vocal critic of trade agreements that cut Chiquita out of the foreign banana market.

Dole's friendship may also give Lindner political cover. Chiquita Brands, among others, faces a lawsuit alleging that its use of the pesticide DBCP caused sterility in 16,000 foreign farmworkers.

More well-known than Lindner himself are two of his proteges, Charles Keating, of S&L fame, and Michael Milken, the former junk bond king. Keating, whose law firm did work for Lindner's conglomerate, American Financial Corp., became vice president of AFC in 1972. A few years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Keating and Lindner with defrauding stockholders. (Other Keating associates on the list include #270 Ben Barnes and #344 Don Crocker.)

Lindner, described in James B. Stewart's Den of Thieves as a "father figure" to Michael Milken, was also the single largest purchaser of Milken's junk bonds. (Others on the list with Milken ties include #21 Peter May, #237 Nicholas Forstmann, #305 Leon Black, #353 Henry Kravis, and #373 Steve Wynn.)

Lindner, thought a conservative by temperament (he was a member of the anti-porn group largely responsible for Cincinnati's Mapplethorpe dustup), give money to whoever in in power. Despite his relationship with Dole, he was President Clinton's largest single contributor as of July 1994. But shortly after Republicans took the House in November 1994, Lindner sent a check for $55,000 to Speaker Newt Gingrich's GOPAC.

What would Lindner ultimately like in return for his generosity? For the SEC and Congress to stop looking into his sleazy deals and leave him alone.

[AX10]

11. Evil company!

[Judi Lynn]

14. Important information on Lindner. I never knew he wanted to be known as a porn fighter!

Nothing is quite a filthy, however, as what a death squad does to union workers in other countries where the top government officials have been bought off, and look the other way while the hired death squads torture and massacre them, after periods of intimidation and death threats, and terrorizing and shattering their families.

Now THAT'S pornographic.

Thanks for the links.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Better link here : can you say DULLES BROTHERS

1954 Involvement in the Coup against President Arbenz


In 1954, a CIA-orchestrated coup ended what Guatemalans call the "Ten Years of Spring," which began with the bloodless overthrow of military dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944. During this period, two democratically-elected civilian presidents governed Guatemala, trying to provide opportunities and raise the standard of living. Jacobo Arbenz, elected in 1950, began to push agrarian reforms more seriously than his predecessor. The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) (UFCo) protested when unused portions of its vast holdings were expropriated and distributed to land-less peasants. The Guatemalan government paid the US company the tax-declared value of the land, but UFCo protested to the highest levels of the US government.

Two UFCo stockholders at the time were the Dulles brothers, Secretary of State and head of the CIA in the Eisenhower administration. © 1998, Piet van Lear, A War Called Peace

http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/chiquita.htm

I split the paragraph to highlight THE DULLES BROTHERS -SECRETARY OF STATE AND HEAD OF THE CIA.

[kelligesq]

9. Pappy and Negroponte's in the 80's said to be behind the

slaughters.

[kimmerspixelated]

2. Has the world gone completely bananas?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Only the death squads and their patrons. n/t

[AikidoSoul]

4. They have always oppressed the people in the countries

where they operate.

The corporatists -- funding terrorism to promote their business agendas. It's the American way.... then they don't hesitate to turn around and call the kettle black.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Chiquita sued in NY over killings in Colombia

Chiquita sued in NY over killings in Colombia
Wed Nov 14, 2007 4:09pm EST

NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The largest U.S. lawsuit to date against top banana producer Chiquita Brands International (CQB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) was filed on Wednesday, claiming the company funded and armed a Colombian paramilitary organization accused of killing banana growers.

The civil lawsuit seeks a total of $7.86 billion on behalf of 393 victims and their relatives and accuses Chiquita of conspiring with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym AUC, to control Colombia's banana growing regions.

"It was about acquiring every aspect of banana distribution and sale through a reign of terror," plaintiffs' lawyer Jonathan Reiter told reporters in New York. The suit seeks damages for supporting terrorism, war crimes, wrongful death and torture.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, is the latest of several complaints filed by Colombian victims against Chiquita in the United States this year.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSN14211578

Whenever propagandists tell you these scums were paying leftists as well as right-wing death squads, just remind yourself it has always been the leftist union workers, and union organizers and human rights workers who are getting murdered.

Sometimes they lie. If they want to make poor people work for virtually NOTHING, they are going to start killing them if they can get death squads to do it, when the poor try to organize for better working conditions, and the meager-est increase in wages. That's why people despise these murderous, cheating, stealing, lying, power-playing merchants of death.

Their reputation precedes their dirty, vicious exploitation in Colombia to other countries, other genocides. It's what they DO.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Will Congress give them immunity, too?

[gorbal]

10. More of this

People need to focus on issues like this.

I wish people would talk about this and important issues like the dirty war on latin american instead of focusing on whether or not Chavez is picking his nose or not. Of him I would rather hear about his policy decisions than his outbursts.

Of course I'm nobodies boss that is just what I wish

[gtar100]

12. No more Chiquita products for me

These people totally suck. And I'm not supporting them anymore.

Assholes!

[Judi Lynn]

13. Colombian families sue Chiquita for 7.8 billion dollars

Colombian families sue Chiquita for 7.8 billion dollars
12 hours ago

NEW YORK (AFP) — A group of Colombian families filed a lawsuit against banana giant Chiquita in New York Wednesday, accusing the company of paying off militant groups that allegedly tortured and killed their relatives.

The lawsuit, the latest of several legal challenges filed against the company for its involvement with the feared paramilitary groups, seeks 7.8 billion dollars in damages.

"This lawsuit is about compensating the victims and the families for these atrocities," said Jonathan Reiter, the lawyer representing the 393 individuals, family members and alleged victims, unveiling the lawsuit in New York.

The mammoth lawsuit, if equally divided, would equal about 20 million dollars per plaintiff.

The complaint says the victims in the suit were tortured and killed by one of Colombia's most notorious paramilitary groups, the United Self-Defense Committees of Colombia, in the pay of Chiquita.

The suit seeks "damages for terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity extrajudicial killing, torture and wrongful death."

More:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jBU2EmVgLgRhbMOU3noCK_3ThFfw

[Judi Lynn]

15. Banana company, Chiquita, ‘armed guerrillas’

From The Times
November 16, 2007
Banana company, Chiquita, ‘armed guerrillas’

Tim Reid in Washington
Victims of the bloody paramilitary conflict in Colombia are suing the US banana company Chiquita, accusing it of funding and arming guerrilla groups blamed for torture and thousands of killings.

The lawsuit, filed in New York, seeks $7.86 billion (£4 billion) on behalf of 393 victims and their relatives. They accuse Chiquita Brands of complicity in hundreds of murders carried out by the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group known by its Spanish acronym AUC.

The company has courted controversy for more than a century amid claims about the aggressive tactics that it has used to influence the politics of the Central American countries in which it operates. In 1975 a US investigation revealed that it bribed the Government of the Honduran President – and military dictator – Oswaldo López Arellano to get banana export taxes reduced.

The company even spawned the term “Banana Republic”, first coined by the American humourist O. Henry in 1904, in reference to the American conglomerate United Fruit and its actions in Honduras. The company had dominated Central America since 1899 and changed its name to Chiquita Brands International in 1989.
(snip)

The new lawsuit makes far more serious allegations, accusing Chiquita of abetting atrocities including terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Jonathan Reiter, lawyer for the victims, said that Chiquita’s support for the AUC went beyond mere protection payments and included the shipment of thousands of rifles through a port facility owned by Banadex.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2879864.ece