HUMAN RIGHTS CLAIMS AGAINST CHIQUITA FOR FUNDING COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARIES WILL PROCEED IN U.S. COURT
HUMAN RIGHTS CLAIMS AGAINST CHIQUITA FOR FUNDING COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARIES WILL PROCEED IN U.S. COURT
Forum Non Conveniens Motion is Denied
. . .
In 2007, EarthRights International (ERI), joined by the co-counsel listed below, filed a class action suit against Chiquita on behalf of the families of thousands of villagers, labor leaders and community organizers murdered by the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a notorious paramilitary terrorist organization. Chiquita made illegal, concealed payments to the AUC for years, totaling at least $1.6 million; the lawsuit also alleges that the AUC shipped arms and drugs through Chiquita’s ports and on Chiquita boats.
In March 2007, Chiquita pled guilty to the federal crime of funding a designated terrorist organization and paid a fine. “Chiquita profited from its relationship with the AUC, and paid the Department of Justice $25 million, but the victims of their conduct have received nothing – it is past time Chiquita compensates the families in Colombia,” said Marco Simons, ERI’s General Counsel. “We are pleased that the Court agreed that ‘The United States has a strong interest in monitoring and deterring unethical and illegal conduct of American corporations in supporting foreign terrorist organizations.’ The Plaintiffs sued Chiquita here in its home court where Chiquita will get a fair hearing on the merits, something the company seems to have been trying to delay for a decade,” added co-counsel Agnieszka Fryszman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.
Despite the fact that Chiquita pulled out of Colombia, and now has no operations or assets there, Chiquita argued that it was more “convenient” for them to litigate in Colombia than the United States. The court rejected this position, finding Colombia to be an inadequate forum in light of the serious security risks for Plaintiffs and their lawyers. Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders where at least 335 were murdered between 2009 and 2015. “Our clients chose to litigate in the United States because it is the only forum where they can litigate safely and where they can be sure that Chiquita will pay,” said Simons.
The case against Chiquita will continue for its alleged violations of Colombian law. The Plaintiffs have also sued several former Chiquita executives that were allegedly responsible for making, approving and concealing the payments to the AUC. And, on June 1, 2016, Judge Marra ruled that the claims against those executives, including claims for torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act, could also continue. The case now moves into the discovery phase.
More:
https://earthrights.org/media_release/human-rights-claims-against-chiquita-for-funding-colombian-paramilitaries-will-proceed-in-u-s-court/
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in Colombia to rise to the occasion efficiently with their vicious war against helpless Colombians and other farmers and villagers:
Who Is Israel’s Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone?
STORY JUNE 01, 2000
Last weekend, Colombian intelligence agents arrested two Israelis and a Colombian suspected of being part of an arms-smuggling network attempting to deliver more than 50,000 guns to guerrillas. [includes rush transcript]
Colombian officials are investigating whether the detained Israelis are linked to Yair Klein, an Israeli mercenary accused by Colombian authorities of training right-wing paramilitaries and drug-traffickers in the late 1980s and 1990s.
And it is this man Yair Klein that we are going to take a close look at today. It’s the story of a leading mercenary but also of the governments and shadowy forces he has worked with.
In late April, Yair Klein was released from a Sierra Leone prison where he spent 16 months on charges that he was smuggling arms to rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Klein is a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Army. In the 1980s he established a paramilitary mercenary company called Spearhead Ltd. Through this company, Klein began providing arms and training to forces in South America.
In 1989, Klein, along with several other former Israeli officers, was charged by authorities in Colombia of providing paramilitary training and arms to drug lords running international cocaine cartels. He is also accused of training Mafia assassins whose targets have included Colombian politicians. Klein is also suspected of involvement in the explosion of a Colombian airliner in November 1989.
More:
https://www.democracynow.org/2000/6/1/who_is_israels_yair_klein_and
