Chiquita-Funded Terrorist Group: Had A Hit List Of Union Leaders, Many Were Killed

CHICAGO (TDB) -- A draft report produced by a United Nations-sponsored agency that examined violence in Colombia says that a terror group funded in part by Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands kept a hit list of labor union leaders and publicly described them as "military targets."

The document says Auto defensas Unidas de Colombia, which is known by the initials AUC in English, used assassinations to eliminate foes. AUC was a right wing paramilitary that the United States declared a terrorist organization on Sept. 10, 2001. Chiquita paid the organization $1.7 million and pleaded guilty March 20 to violating federal laws that prohibit American businesses from consorting with terrorists. The banana company said the money was used to protect its Colombian operations after AUC made threats that its workers were in danger.

However, the draft United Nations report (pdf page 35) contends AUC was waging war against progressive elements of Colombian society, particularly labor organizations. Other data suggests it openly courted businesses for financial support.

"The Escuela Sindical of Medellin (ENS) reports that 1,600 trade union leaders have received death threats over the past 3 years. A press released by the paramilitary group Auto defensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) on 8 February 2001 publicly states that 104 union leaders are 'military targets.' The year 2001 represented the worst year for trade unionists, with 137 killed, 37 arrested, 24 abducted and 17 disappeared.

"According to the Central Unit for Labourers, between January and August 2002, 115 trade union leaders were assassinated -- an average of 114 per month. This represents a 41% increase [over] 2001. Being a public prosecutor is another dangerous occupation. Many investigators and prosecutors of symbolic human rights cases have been murdered."

Chicago Newspaper Exec: Caught Up In Chiquita Colombian Terrorist Scandal?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Former Chiquita Chairman Cyrus Freidheim Jr. headed the Cincinnati banana company during some of the period it appears to have had illegal dealings with Colombian terrorists -- financial payments that were supposed to protect the company's workers from violence. Freidheim is now the top executive at Sun-Times media group, the company that publishes the Chicago Sun-Times, a tabloid newspaper that is second in circulation behind the Chicago Tribune in that market.

The link between the newspaper exec and Chiquita has not been dwelled upon in media reports after federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against the Cincinnati banana producer last week. Reuters, the British news service, reported Freidheim's possible involvement in the Chiquita investigation.

"Sun Times Media said Freidheim has not been told he is a target of the probe. But he could face questions as a former officer and director of Chiquita."

On its surface, this looks really lousy. It means that a newspaper executive -- a journalist under broad legal definitions -- headed a corporation that admits it consorted with violent groups that the U.S. government officially classified as terrorist organizations. At worst, it means that newspapers are in the hands of bean counters who will do anything to make a buck. Forget the adages about afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. At best, it could be said it means that running a multi-national fruit company with a history of sleazy dealings in Latin America takes the same skills as running a major metropolitan American newspaper.

Some 40,000 Colombians have died during four decades of violence between rightists, leftists, their paramilitaries, guerrilla groups and the central government. The country has 3 million displaced persons, a total that the UN says is among the highest on the planet. Freidheim, most in the news business should hope, is a great guy who set Chiquita on the straight and narrow. Anything else, it would seem, is too terrible to contemplate.