Chiquita asks US to dismiss mass lawsuit over 4,000 killings in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Chiquita asks US to dismiss mass lawsuit over 4,000 killings in Colombia
Apr 25, 2014 posted by Oliver Sheldon


The multinational fruit and vegetable company, Chiquita Brands International, has asked a US Federal Court to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by families of victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia, reported national media.

Chiquita Brands in 2007 was fined $25 million after being found guilty of paying $1.7 million to now-defunct paramilitary umbrella group AUC , between 1997 and 2004.

Chiquita has argued that the claims should be rejected because although they made the payments, it can’t be asserted that they were directly linked to the thousands of deaths caused by the paramilitaries, reported Colombia’s Santa Fe Radio.

John Hall, a lawyer for the company, told a US court that any legal action taken by the families of victims should take place in Colombia.

Attorney for the Colombian plaintiffs, Paul Hoffman, said that the American justice system does have jurisdiction over the case because Chiquita headquarters was based in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the time, and made payment decisions from that location.

Read more: http://colombiareports.co/chiquita-asks-us-dismiss-mass-lawsuit-4000-killings-colombia/#prettyPhoto

[geretogo]

1. Violence and murders are not new in SA with these fruit Companies . United fruit had 200,000

workers murdered in Guatemala in the 50's because they wanted to nationalize .

[MsLeopard]

2. Since they're a corporation

It will be "permission granted!"

[pragmatic_dem]

3. Since money equals speech, giving cash to death squads is the same as ordering them to kill -nt

[Judi Lynn]

4. There has never been a question over the nature of the Colombian death squads, you're right.

From the article's ending:

Chiquita Brands International, which ended its Colombian operations in 2004 , three years later admitted that it had paid Colombian paramilitaries $ 1.7 million, “under pressure.”

The testimony of former paramilitaries however has indicated that far from being extortion, it was in fact Chiquita who initiated contact with the AUC.

Chiquita has claimed they were forced to do it, but Chiquita's involvement with death squads started long, LONG before they started hiring AUC to terrorize, torture, and murder union workers and organizers.

How can anyone even look at himself in the mirror who has arranged to have an organization known throughout the world as a chain-saw murdering, machete-slinging group which disembowels its victims, sometimes stuffs them with rocks and throws them into the river? There have been Colombians who have spend years trying to snag bodies they see floating by in the Colombian rivers, bring them out and give them decent burials.

All for larger profits, earned by stealing the salaries workers of Colombia honestly deserve by working so hard for them.

[pragmatic_dem]

5. It is the long dark legacy of poverty, injustice, the CIA and Wall Street money... I do not know

why so many Americans think the non-rich should work for free at the mercy of the rich.