Banana Land and the Corporate Death Squad Scandals

[kpete]

Banana Land and the Corporate Death Squad Scandals

Charlie Cray

Director of the Center for Corporate Policy
Posted: February 15, 2010 09:15 PM


A federal judge recently refused to dismiss a civil suit filed against Chiquita which charges that the company paid leftist (FARC) guerrillas operating near its plantations in Colombia -- during a period when the FARC killed four American missionaries, according to CNN.

...............

But that's become an increasingly untenable position -- especially since some of the same paramilitaries who took the payments have come in from the cold, disarming and submitting to Colombia's "Justice and Peace" process, which allows them to receive reduced jail time for confessing to all of their terrorist crimes. The problem for Chiquita -- and now for Dole (and potentially for Del Monte) -- is that the confessions reveal a much different story.

One of the ex-paramilitaries -- Jose Gregorio Mangones Lugo (aka "Carlos Tijeras") -- was the former commander of the William Rivas Front of the United Defense Forces ("AUC"), the group that operated in northern Colombia, in the zone where the companies and their suppliers grew bananas. In a sworn statement Tijeras described the AUC's relationship with the multinational banana companies as "an open public relationship" involving everything from "security services" to the kidnapping and extrajudicial assassination of labor leaders fingered by the companies as "security problems."

Tijeras' statement -- which reads like the confessions of a corporate death squad leader and directly refutes his paymasters' version of events -- has now been entered into the record in a case filed against Dole last April in California by attorneys with Conrad and Scherer:

******I've been told that Chiquita has asserted that they paid the AUC funds, but that this was coerced and was a form of extortion. I have also heard that Dole claims to have never paid us any funds. Both of these assertions are absolutely false. In fact, my agreement with Chiquita and Dole was to provide them with total security and other services.

more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlie-cray/banana-land-and-the-corpo_b_463295.html

[CanonRay]

1. This is what's in store for us

when the corpothugs finalize their takeover.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. When did FARC kill 4 missionaries?

I've heard of AUC (or another RW para) killing missionaries. I've heard of our own drug warriors shooting down a missionary's plane. I've heard of FARC killing CIA/DEA agents. Not missionaries.

[ThomWV]

3. The CIA has hit squads, why shouldn't Chiquita Bannana?

Two weeks ago yesterday the Director -National Intelligence told the world, in sworn testimony before the Congress of the United States, that the CIA murder(s) American citizens. He explained that they do so only after careful consideration and receiving approval from "the highest authority". He did not elaborate on which Judge passed sentence or which jury found the citizens guilty, in fact he didn't even mention what crime they were accused of. He couldn't.

Just thought you should know.