El Tiempo, Colombia
Four Million Bullets:
'Congratulations' Chiquita Banana!
"The case against Chiquita is a
great opportunity to rip the lid off the putrid cauldron cooked up by companies
that have enriched themselves with impunity on the blood of the people. Justice
must not remain silent."
By Natalia Springer
Translated By Halszka
Czarnocka
March
20, 2007
Colombia
- El Tiempo - Original Article (Spanish)
Congratulations
to the defense team of Chiquita Brands Inc! One must have a great imagination
and no scruples at all to allege ignorance of "protection" money paid
by the company "in good faith" to the FARC (Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army) during the 1990s, or the
contribution of $1.7 million it made to the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia) since 1997, right in the heat of the campaign to "pacify"
the Magdalena Media region.
[Editor's
Note: Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. federal court to one count of
doing business with a terrorist organization. The plea is part of a deal with
prosecutors that calls for a $25-million fine and doesn't identify several
senior executives who approved the illegal protection payments
].
It is incomprehensible
how the investigation could have been concluded with such an absurdly low fine,
when it's obvious that the money was not a donation, and that the organizations
involved were not charities but rather terrorist groups so categorized by the
United States government – in clear violation of the "Patriot Act" as
well as all kinds of administrative orders and the former policy of not
negotiating with terrorists.
Moreover, the possibility that these dealings were
part of a series of transactions involving the company in drug trafficking
cannot be dismissed, if it is verified that it was aware that drugs were being
smuggled in containers of bananas.
Also, it remains unclear whether these payments to
illegal armed groups – which were the de-facto authorities on the ground -
could have constituted a method of evading taxes and to obtain free access to
the region's ports, which would have guaranteed tremendous benefits to the
company in the handling of its exports by customs.
Chiquita Brands Inc. has a long tradition of shady
dealings in Latin America. In
his book, One Hundred Years of Solitude [Cien años de soledad], Gabriel
García Márquez preserved for posterity the memory of the "Banana
Massacre," which took place in Ciénaga in December, 1928, which was the
result of protests against horrific working conditions by laborers of the
United Fruit Company - Chiquita's predecessor .
[Editor's Note: The 'Banana Massacre' that the
author refers to is also known as the Santa Marta Massacre, and took place on
December 28, 1928, when an army regiment from Bogotá was dispatched to deal
with workers striking for better working conditions. The number of dead varies
from the government estimate of 47 to independent researchers like Gabriel
García Márquez, who put the figure as high as 2,000 ].
It is widely believed that the company collaborated
with the CIA with the intention of overthrowing the "anti-capitalist"
government, which threatened its interests in Guatemala in the
1950s; this is also tied to a series of illegal payments to the President of
Honduras in the 1970s.
This case not only opens a new chapter in the
application of justice and peace, but it allows for the exploration of big
capital's responsibility for the armed conflict in Colombia. It is
in addition a great opportunity to rip the lid off the putrid cauldron cooked
up by companies that have enriched themselves with impunity on the blood of the
people.
Confronted by the powerful oil lobby over the
defense of their ancestral lands, we remain silent about the genocide of the
U'Wa tribe . We continue
to stand by hoping to learn more about the participation of banks in laundering
hundreds of millions of dollars a year from drug trafficking. The Chiquita
Brands case must trigger a process that reveals the economic levers of agrarian
counter-reform in Colombia. The
case against the Riggs Bank for money laundering to the benefit of Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet is an example to follow.
Now pay attention. Chiquita Brands
Inc., through its affiliate Banacol, imported and stored a container with 3,400
rifles and 4 million rounds of ammunition for the war "to protect the
lives of our employees," as they put it. These are the 4 million bullets
that have torn apart the whole of Colombia and unleashed a wave of terror and violence which is causing one
of the gravest humanitarian crises in the world. Justice must not remain
silent.
desurasur@gmail.com
Spanish
Version Below
Cuatro millones de balazos
Natalia Springer. Columnista
de EL TIEMPO
Marzo 18 de 2007 - DE SUR A
SUR
El caso de
Chiquita Brands da lugar a
la exploración de la responsabilidad
de grandes capitales en el conflicto.
Aplausos para la defensa de la Chiquita
Brands Inc. Hay que tener mucha imaginación y ningún escrúpulo para alegar ignorancia
en los usos que se le dieron al dinero que, por
el concepto de "protección",
la compañía les pagó, de
"buena fe", a las Farc y al Eln
durante los años 90, o de las contribuciones que por 1,7 millones
de dólares le hicieron a las Auc a partir
del año 1997, en plena campaña de 'pacificación' del
Magdalena Medio.
No se entiende cómo la investigación concluye con una multa irrisoria, cuando está claro
que ese dinero
no fue entregado en donación, ni las
organizaciones involucradas
eran entidades de caridad, sino grupos
terroristas calificados así por el gobierno
estadounidense, en franca violación
del 'Patriot Act', de toda suerte
de disposiciones administrativas
y de la vieja política de
no negociar con terroristas.
Tampoco se ha descartado que los tratos hubieran
hecho parte de una serie de transacciones
que involucrarían la participación de la compañía en el
negocio del narcotráfico,
si se comprueba que tenía conocimiento
de que se transportaba droga en los contenedores
de banano.
Igualmente está por establecerse
si esos pagos
a grupos armados ilegales, que eran
las autoridades de facto en
la zona, podrían haberse constituido en una forma de evadir impuestos y acceder libremente a los puertos, lo que les habría garantizado grandes beneficios en el manejo aduanero de sus exportaciones.
Chiquita Brands Inc. tiene
una larga tradición de manejos turbios en América Latina. Los preservó para la memoria García Márquez en Cien años de soledad al recordar
la "masacre de las bananeras" ocurrida en
Ciénaga en diciembre de 1928, a raíz
de las protestas de los trabajadores de la United
Fruit Company, predecesora de Chiquita, que se alzaban contra las pobrísimas condiciones laborales.
Se cree también que la empresa patrocinó a la CIA en el propósito de derrocar al gobierno 'anticapitalista' que amenazaba sus
intereses en Guatemala en los
años 50 y se la relaciona además con una serie de pagos indebidos a un presidente de
Honduras en los años 70.
Este caso
no solo abre un nuevo capítulo en el proceso de Justicia y Paz y da lugar a la exploración
de la responsabilidad de grandes
capitales económicos en el desarrollo del conflicto armado en Colombia. Es, además, una oportunidad
magnífica para destapar la olla podrida de las compañías que impunemente
se han enriquecido
a precio de sangre.
Seguimos callando ante al genocidio del pueblo u'wa,
enfrentado contra el poderoso
lobby del petróleo por la defensa de sus territorios ancestrales. Seguimos a la espera de conocer la participación de los bancos en el lavado de miles de millones de dólares del narcotráfico cada año. Este caso
debe convertirse en el principio de una historia que revele
con propiedad los móviles económicos de la contrarreforma agraria en Colombia. La causa contra el Riggs Bank por lavado de activos
en favor del dictador Pinochet es un ejemplo que hay que seguir.
Fíjense, ustedes.
Chiquita Brands Inc., a través de su
filial Banacol, importó y almacenó
un container con 3.400 fusiles
y cuatro millones de cartuchos para la guerra, según ellos
para "proteger la vida de los empleados".
Esos son cuatro millones de balazos que despedazaron a Colombia entera y desataron una oleada de terror y de violencia que dio
origen a una
de las crisis humanitarias más graves del mundo. La justicia no puede guardar silencio.
desurasur@gmail.com
