Payoffs to Colombian terrorists scrutinized (Chiquita Bananas, Coca Cola, etc.)

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Wed, Apr. 18, 2007
Payoffs to Colombian terrorists scrutinized
By Jane Bussey and Steven Dudley

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

BOGOTA, Colombia - Chiquita Brands International's recent admission that it paid off a Colombian group on the U.S. terrorist list has spotlighted a practice once hush-hush in Colombia, Washington's closest ally in Latin America.

Several other U.S.-based corporations, including Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and the Alabama-based coal company Drummond Co., face civil lawsuits alleging their Colombian operations worked with the same group to kill several trade unionists.

But the guilty plea by Chiquita, a company with a long and infamous history in Latin America, has focused attention on the payoffs that Colombian and foreign companies make to the illegal armed groups fighting the country's 40-year-old civil war, especially in remote areas where those groups hold sway.
(snip)

Ripples from the Chiquita case and the scandal already have reached Washington. Concern on Capitol Hill about violence against trade unionists in Colombia could derail approval of a U.S. free trade agreement with Bogota. Congress is considering a Bush administration request for another $600 million in aid for Colombia's fight against drugs and the armed groups.


Read more: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/world/17095969.htm

pay a good price for the resources they are removing from those countries and have the people on their side?

Brands owner was Carl Lindner (sp?) of cincinnati right-wing Republican fame. He is very extreme, but then you probably already knew that.

It's like the oil companies, except that it's "How did our bananas grow in their country?"

The right-wing extremists have along record (for centuries) of stealing the resources of other countries. Leaving a small corrupt government that "sells" to the right-wing extremists and a huge impoverished population that has no hope.

also was the Coca Cola franchisee for Nicaragua. Small World. :sarcasm:

That is so odd. The world DOES start looking smaller and smaller at times like this.

Vicente Fox was an official with Coca Cola some time ago, but that's not as deadly, as far as I know, as someone who was involved in Iran-Contra would be.

Thanks for the quick bit of enlightenment.

These Crusader controlled corporations have been using the US tax dollar to control countries all over the World. We all have been paying out our national treasure so the wealthy stock owners can live their lavish lifestyle at our expense.

It's a very big dirty little secret.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_ron_gros_070419_court_ruling_gives_j.htm

April 20, 2007 at 08:15:52

Court Ruling Gives Jewish Exiles Hope and Coca-Cola Fits

by Ron Grossman Page 1 of 2 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

A little-noticed U.S. Supreme Court decision has reopened a forgotten chapter in Middle East history with far-reaching implications for the torturous, often violent politics of the region.

The court recently declined Coca-Cola Co.'s request to review a lower court's decision allowing a Canadian Jewish family to sue the soft-drink giant for trespass. The case was brought by the heirs of Joshias Bigio, a businessman in Egypt until the government expropriated his enterprises in the 1960s.

Thirty years later, Bigio's son, Refael, discovered that Coke was using one of his father's factories as part of its Egyptian bottling operations and asked for compensation. When that was not forthcoming, he filed a lawsuit—Bigio vs. The Coca-Cola Co.—in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Bigios, who eventually settled in Canada, are Sephardim—Jews whose ancestors lived in Muslim countries for centuries before fleeing a wave of anti-Semitic violence and intimidation that began at the founding of Israel in 1948. Many had to abandon homes, businesses and life savings. The Bigio family hung on longer, heavily invested in factories and other enterprises and hoping to somehow weather the storm. "You had to leave with only five Egyptian pounds per person," said Refael Bigio. "Our family wound up eating in a soup kitchen in France."