CINCINNATI (TDB) -- U.S. Attorney General Albert R. Gonzales appears contradicted by Chiquita Brands International Inc.'s Chairman and CEO Fernando Aguirre, who described the banana company's dealings with federal officials as a " four year dialogue" before it pleaded guilty to paying protection money to right-wing terrorists in Colombia.
Gonzales told Congress in May that the Cincinnati-based company's prosecution resulted from a national security investigative apparatus working "tirelessly to pursue terrorists."
Aguirre's version looks closer to the truth. There was a long delay between the time Chiquita told the government it was consorting with the South American rightists and the eventual criminal charges. The delay clearly allowed time for a "dialogue." But what was said between the offender and the agency responsible for bringing it to justice? No one knows. And that begs another question: Do other crooks "dialogue" in terrorist cases? Or did Chiquita have connections?
Gonzales in May gave the House Judiciary Committee a lengthy written statement that discussed what he called the "important role that the new National Security Division (NSD) has played since it was established." He outlined several criminal cases and included Chiquita among them:
"In just the past few months we have announced noteworthy arrests and prosecutions, such as those of Hassan Abujihaad, a former United States Navy seaman accused of providing information on United States naval battle groud movements to terrorist supporters, and Daniel Maldonado, accused of fighting alongside extremist Islamic fighters in Somalia. We also have announced guilty pleas from individuals such as Tarik Shah, a former martial arts instructor from the Bronx who pleaded guilty to conspiring to support al Qaeda. Further, following a joint U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Commerce investigation, corporations such as Chiquita Brands, which made sizable illegal payments to a terrorist organization, have learned that they are not immune from criminal prosecution."
His full statement is still available on the Justice Department's website.
Chiquita CEO Aguirre wrote a piece for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's business civic leadership center in April that said the Ohio company voluntarily turned itself in and then spent four years talking to the government about its fate -- the "dialogue." Aguirre said Chiquita might never have been caught if it hadn't gone to the Justice Department in the first place.
"So the company decided to do what we believe any responsible citizen should do under the circumstances. We went to the U.S. Department of Justice and voluntarily disclosed the facts and the predicament. the U.S. government had no knowledge of the payments and, and we not come forward ourselves, it is entirely possible that the payments would have remained unknown to American authorities to this day.
"The meeting with the DOJ began a four-year dialogue that culminated with the company pleading guilty to one count of violating statutes in connection with all payments made by its former subsidiary to entities affiliated with right-wing paramilitaries from 2001 to 2004."
Aguirre's account of the "dialogue" with Gonzales' tireless anti-terror operatives is still online in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce e-newsletter.
So far, the Ohio press has been remarkably restrained in its coverage of the Gonzales-led Justice Department's activities. Perhaps things will change.
Showing posts with label Chiquita Brands International. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chiquita Brands International. Show all posts
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
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."
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."
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Earth To U.S. Congress: Please, Ask Questions About Chiquita And Terrorists
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- One of Ohio's corporate giants, Chiquita Brands International, admitted last week it illegally funnelled cash to a terrorist group in Colombia that has been linked to raping, torturing, kidnapping, threatening and murdering foes, including police, prosecutors , judges and members of that nation's elected legislative body. But the U.S Congress isn't asking any questions that would fill in blanks about who at the banana company's downtown Cincinnati headquarters could have signed off on the payments -- or if anybody did.
Chiquita has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $25 million penalty for its rogue activities with Colombia's AUC, a rightist paramilitary. The U.S. State Department's official 2000 Human Rights Report is HERE and AUC is frequently mentioned in bloody or brutal activities.
These excerpts list what happened to cops, prosecutors, congress members, judges and journalists who crossed paths with AUC in 1999 while Chiquita was paying the paramilitary:
1. "Judges have long been subject to threats and intimidation, particularly when dealing with cases involving members of the public security forces or of paramilitary, narcotics, and guerrilla organizations. Violent attacks against prosecutors and judges continued, and prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys continued to be subjected to threats and acts of violence. On April 3, specialized jurisdiction prosecutor Margarita Maria Pulgarin Trujillo was killed in Medellin; AUC members were the prime suspects in her killing. Prosecutors reported that potential witnesses in major cases often lacked faith in the Government's ability to protect their anonymity and were thus unwilling to testify, ruining chances for successful prosecutions."
2. "On June 14, the trial of 10 persons suspected of the February 1998 killing of human rights activist Jesus Maria Valle began in Medellin. Valle was the president of the Antioquia Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. Charges were brought against suspected killers Jorge Eliecer Rodriguez Guzman, Alvaro Goez Meza, Gilma Patricia Gaviria Palacios, Elkin Dario Granada Lopez, Alexander Vallejo Echeverry, and Carlos Alberto Bedoya Marulanda for direct participation in the crime. In August 1999, the Prosecutor General's office issued arrest warrants for AUC paramilitary leader Carlos Castano and Juan Carlos Gonzalez Jaramillo for planning the crime. Castano was indicted in September 1998 for the killing. According to press reports, the first police agent on the case was killed soon afterward; the prosecutor fled the country; and another investigator was killed in September 1999."
3. "In October the AUC paramilitary group kidnapped seven members of Congress, including former Senate President Miguel Pineda and Zulema Jattin, a member of a congressional peace commission, and demanded that the AUC be consulted in the peace process. The Government refused to open discussions with the AUC, but Interior Minister Humberto de la Calle negotiated the hostages' release with Castano."
4. "On May 3, the Prosecutor General's office formally charged AUC paramilitary leader Carlos Castano with the August 1999 killing of renowned journalist, political comedian, and peace and human rights activist Jaime Garzon Forero in Bogota. On January 13, members of the CTI captured La Terraza gang member Juan Pablo Ortiz Agudelo in Medellin on suspicion of having been the gunman in the attack against Garzon. Ortiz remained in detention in Bogota at year's end. In December a group of men claiming to represent the "La Terraza" criminal organization said publicly that they were hired by Castano to kill Jaime Garzon and human rights activists Elsa Alvarado, Mario Calderon, Jesus Maria Valle, and Eduardo Umana Mendoza. They offered to turn themselves in and provide proof of Castano's involvement in return for security guarantees from the Government. There was no public response from the authorities by year's end."
5. "In July the Attorney General announced an investigation into retired army Brigadier General Alberto Bravo Silva, Colonel Roque Sanchez, and three other army officers for failing to prevent a paramilitary massacre of 27 persons in August 1999 in La Gabarra. The investigation was still in progress at year's end. Bravo retired in August 1999 on the orders of President Pastrana. Two of the three army officers are still members of the public security forces. Colonel Sanchez, the regional police commander at the time of the killings, was on trial at year's end. In October the Attorney General's office also charged Colonel Sanchez. On May 3, the Prosecutor General's office formally charged AUC paramilitary chief Carlos Castano with masterminding the May 29 and August 21 La Gabarra massacres in 1999."
6. "On May 25, Jineth Bedoya Lima, a reporter for the El Espectador newspaper, was kidnapped and raped over a period of 10 hours while on her way to interview a convicted paramilitary leader at the Modelo prison in Bogota. Two days prior to her kidnapping, El Espectador received threatening letters against her and other journalists. Carlos Castano, leader of the AUC paramilitary organization, denied that the AUC was involved in the kidnaping."
7. "In February the National Police and the DAS captured north coast paramilitary chief Adan Rojas Ospino in Barranquilla, Atlantico department. Rojas, a key aid to AUC paramilitary chief Carlos Castano, was sought in connection with a series of massacres dating back to the 1980's, as well as to the 1994 killing of a congressman. On February 24, the DAS also announced the capture of Arnoldo Segundo Meza de la Rosa, the alleged chief of intelligence and finance operations for the paramilitary fronts operating in Sucre and Bolivar departments. Additionally, the DAS announced the capture in Monteria, Cordoba department, of an ACCU paramilitary leader.
Paramilitary groups on occasion used landmines and sometimes forced underage combatants into their ranks. Paramilitary forces failed to respect the injured and medical personnel. For example, in November members of a paramilitary group reportedly killed a patient on an ambulance driving from Tibu to Cucuta, Norte de Santander department, and declared the Tibu hospital a 'military objective,' causing several support staff to flee. In late October, presumed members of a paramilitary group kidnapped the same hospital's director, who later was found dead. In late September, paramilitary forces in the Uraba region dragged a wounded FARC member from a Red Cross ambulance and shot and killed her."
Stay tuned: There's more to come.
Chiquita has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $25 million penalty for its rogue activities with Colombia's AUC, a rightist paramilitary. The U.S. State Department's official 2000 Human Rights Report is HERE and AUC is frequently mentioned in bloody or brutal activities.
These excerpts list what happened to cops, prosecutors, congress members, judges and journalists who crossed paths with AUC in 1999 while Chiquita was paying the paramilitary:
1. "Judges have long been subject to threats and intimidation, particularly when dealing with cases involving members of the public security forces or of paramilitary, narcotics, and guerrilla organizations. Violent attacks against prosecutors and judges continued, and prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys continued to be subjected to threats and acts of violence. On April 3, specialized jurisdiction prosecutor Margarita Maria Pulgarin Trujillo was killed in Medellin; AUC members were the prime suspects in her killing. Prosecutors reported that potential witnesses in major cases often lacked faith in the Government's ability to protect their anonymity and were thus unwilling to testify, ruining chances for successful prosecutions."
2. "On June 14, the trial of 10 persons suspected of the February 1998 killing of human rights activist Jesus Maria Valle began in Medellin. Valle was the president of the Antioquia Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. Charges were brought against suspected killers Jorge Eliecer Rodriguez Guzman, Alvaro Goez Meza, Gilma Patricia Gaviria Palacios, Elkin Dario Granada Lopez, Alexander Vallejo Echeverry, and Carlos Alberto Bedoya Marulanda for direct participation in the crime. In August 1999, the Prosecutor General's office issued arrest warrants for AUC paramilitary leader Carlos Castano and Juan Carlos Gonzalez Jaramillo for planning the crime. Castano was indicted in September 1998 for the killing. According to press reports, the first police agent on the case was killed soon afterward; the prosecutor fled the country; and another investigator was killed in September 1999."
3. "In October the AUC paramilitary group kidnapped seven members of Congress, including former Senate President Miguel Pineda and Zulema Jattin, a member of a congressional peace commission, and demanded that the AUC be consulted in the peace process. The Government refused to open discussions with the AUC, but Interior Minister Humberto de la Calle negotiated the hostages' release with Castano."
4. "On May 3, the Prosecutor General's office formally charged AUC paramilitary leader Carlos Castano with the August 1999 killing of renowned journalist, political comedian, and peace and human rights activist Jaime Garzon Forero in Bogota. On January 13, members of the CTI captured La Terraza gang member Juan Pablo Ortiz Agudelo in Medellin on suspicion of having been the gunman in the attack against Garzon. Ortiz remained in detention in Bogota at year's end. In December a group of men claiming to represent the "La Terraza" criminal organization said publicly that they were hired by Castano to kill Jaime Garzon and human rights activists Elsa Alvarado, Mario Calderon, Jesus Maria Valle, and Eduardo Umana Mendoza. They offered to turn themselves in and provide proof of Castano's involvement in return for security guarantees from the Government. There was no public response from the authorities by year's end."
5. "In July the Attorney General announced an investigation into retired army Brigadier General Alberto Bravo Silva, Colonel Roque Sanchez, and three other army officers for failing to prevent a paramilitary massacre of 27 persons in August 1999 in La Gabarra. The investigation was still in progress at year's end. Bravo retired in August 1999 on the orders of President Pastrana. Two of the three army officers are still members of the public security forces. Colonel Sanchez, the regional police commander at the time of the killings, was on trial at year's end. In October the Attorney General's office also charged Colonel Sanchez. On May 3, the Prosecutor General's office formally charged AUC paramilitary chief Carlos Castano with masterminding the May 29 and August 21 La Gabarra massacres in 1999."
6. "On May 25, Jineth Bedoya Lima, a reporter for the El Espectador newspaper, was kidnapped and raped over a period of 10 hours while on her way to interview a convicted paramilitary leader at the Modelo prison in Bogota. Two days prior to her kidnapping, El Espectador received threatening letters against her and other journalists. Carlos Castano, leader of the AUC paramilitary organization, denied that the AUC was involved in the kidnaping."
7. "In February the National Police and the DAS captured north coast paramilitary chief Adan Rojas Ospino in Barranquilla, Atlantico department. Rojas, a key aid to AUC paramilitary chief Carlos Castano, was sought in connection with a series of massacres dating back to the 1980's, as well as to the 1994 killing of a congressman. On February 24, the DAS also announced the capture of Arnoldo Segundo Meza de la Rosa, the alleged chief of intelligence and finance operations for the paramilitary fronts operating in Sucre and Bolivar departments. Additionally, the DAS announced the capture in Monteria, Cordoba department, of an ACCU paramilitary leader.
Paramilitary groups on occasion used landmines and sometimes forced underage combatants into their ranks. Paramilitary forces failed to respect the injured and medical personnel. For example, in November members of a paramilitary group reportedly killed a patient on an ambulance driving from Tibu to Cucuta, Norte de Santander department, and declared the Tibu hospital a 'military objective,' causing several support staff to flee. In late October, presumed members of a paramilitary group kidnapped the same hospital's director, who later was found dead. In late September, paramilitary forces in the Uraba region dragged a wounded FARC member from a Red Cross ambulance and shot and killed her."
Stay tuned: There's more to come.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Ohio's Chiquita Banana And Colombia's Dirty War: Refugees Know The Horror
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Antonio Guterres is hardly a celebrity and the former prime minister of Portugal is definitely an obscure political figure in Ohio, where few would recognize his name. It shouldn't be that way. He is working to clean up an international mess that, it could be said, some Cincinnatians had a hand in creating. Guterres was in Colombia and Ecuador this week doing his job and trying to figure out how to help 3 million people, a mass of humanity that nearly equals the population of Chicago.
Guterres is the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, and he was meeting with government officials and visiting camps where people are suffering. Some of that human misery -- we don't know how much -- happened, in part, because Ohio's Chiquita Brands International Inc. financed paramilitary terrorists so it could safely produce bananas in the middle of an armed struggle that has raged for nearly 40 years. This is what the UN says about the Colombian crisis and the overflow of refugees into Ecuador, where 250,000 have taken shelter:
"Little is known outside the region about this humanitarian crisis, one of the longest and most forgotten in the world today. Mr. Guterres called for the support and solidarity of the international community. He said concrete measures were needed and re-affirmed his commitment to support Ecuador's efforts for peace and development as a crucial step for refugee integration."
Chiquita's March 14 agreement with the Justice Department calls for it to pay a $25 million criminal penalty for consorting with terrorists. That made NEWS in the U.S.
Guterres' trip was hardly mentioned in the press, though it was played up big on the UN portal devoted to shining light on the world's REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED. The UN offered a troubling statistic about Colombia's dirty war, a war that Cincinnati-based Chiquita helped finance. The violence has displaced more people in Colombia than the war in Iraq.
"Some 3 million people are internally displaced in Colombia, representing about 8 percent of the total population of the country. The internally displaced are the biggest group of victims of the armed conflict inside Colombia that has been going on for decades. The humanitarian consequences of the conflict also extend to other countries in the region and notably to Ecuador, where there are an estimated 250,000 Colombian in need to international protection."
More than 40,000 have been killed since 1990. Federal prosecutors say Chiquita paid more than $1.7 million to protect its workers and operations in Colombia, a unit that it sold in 2004. The company said the money went to save its workers. In Colombia, most of the dead in the dirty war between guerrillas, paramilitary organizations and the central government were civilians. There is some recent UN data HERE , and it paints a grim picture about an unstable country that supplied tasty fruits for American snacks.
Apparently, a business in Ohio willingly let its business ethics slip on a banana peel. It sent money to the guys with guns. Now it needs lawyers. A Warren Zevon song said it all about Chiquita's business practices -- lawyers, guns and money, the sh*t has hit the fan.
Guterres is the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, and he was meeting with government officials and visiting camps where people are suffering. Some of that human misery -- we don't know how much -- happened, in part, because Ohio's Chiquita Brands International Inc. financed paramilitary terrorists so it could safely produce bananas in the middle of an armed struggle that has raged for nearly 40 years. This is what the UN says about the Colombian crisis and the overflow of refugees into Ecuador, where 250,000 have taken shelter:
"Little is known outside the region about this humanitarian crisis, one of the longest and most forgotten in the world today. Mr. Guterres called for the support and solidarity of the international community. He said concrete measures were needed and re-affirmed his commitment to support Ecuador's efforts for peace and development as a crucial step for refugee integration."
Chiquita's March 14 agreement with the Justice Department calls for it to pay a $25 million criminal penalty for consorting with terrorists. That made NEWS in the U.S.
Guterres' trip was hardly mentioned in the press, though it was played up big on the UN portal devoted to shining light on the world's REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED. The UN offered a troubling statistic about Colombia's dirty war, a war that Cincinnati-based Chiquita helped finance. The violence has displaced more people in Colombia than the war in Iraq.
"Some 3 million people are internally displaced in Colombia, representing about 8 percent of the total population of the country. The internally displaced are the biggest group of victims of the armed conflict inside Colombia that has been going on for decades. The humanitarian consequences of the conflict also extend to other countries in the region and notably to Ecuador, where there are an estimated 250,000 Colombian in need to international protection."
More than 40,000 have been killed since 1990. Federal prosecutors say Chiquita paid more than $1.7 million to protect its workers and operations in Colombia, a unit that it sold in 2004. The company said the money went to save its workers. In Colombia, most of the dead in the dirty war between guerrillas, paramilitary organizations and the central government were civilians. There is some recent UN data HERE , and it paints a grim picture about an unstable country that supplied tasty fruits for American snacks.
Apparently, a business in Ohio willingly let its business ethics slip on a banana peel. It sent money to the guys with guns. Now it needs lawyers. A Warren Zevon song said it all about Chiquita's business practices -- lawyers, guns and money, the sh*t has hit the fan.
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