Big banana firms paid off terrorists, Colombian ex-warlord tells inquiry

[rec_report]

Source: The Scotsman

Some of the world's best-known banana firms financed right-wing Colombian militias that killed thousands of people during a decade-long reign of terror, a jailed warlord has claimed.

In testimony to investigators, Salvatore Mancuso named multinationals Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole as having made regular payments to the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

Mancuso, once second-in-command of the AUC, did not specify why the companies paid the militias, but the illegal groups often exacted "war taxes" from businesses and ranchers in areas where they operated.

<snip>


Read more: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=778332007

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Gee, isn't funding/supporting terrorists covered under the USA 'Patriot' Act? Why aren't the CEOs of Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole awaiting a military tribunal ('trial') in Guantanamo Bay?
Cheers,
Polar Bear

More news here.

[soothsayer]

1. Soon they'll be paying blackwater instead, and all will be right with the world.

[rec_report]

2. Yup, this sounds like a job for the terrorists at Blackwater USA. n/t

[otherlander]

7. And Blackwater, in turn,

will provide "security forces" by hiring former members of Pinochet's death squads. Right now, Blackwater is hiring such people to be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, after Chile refused to sign its legitimate military up with the coalition of the willing, but if they did wind up being hired by Chiquita Terror Inc., it would be the most sickly ironic thing I've heard in a while.

[UpInArms]

3. Marvin Bush and Del Monte

Another suspect deal, another Bush brother in the mix

The new year begs for a fresh start. But business accusations of international bribery, nefarious investors and a Bush brother awkwardly involved in a troubled company all have a too-familiar ring.

Here's the latest Robert Ludlum-style financial spat.

Former investors in South Florida's Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. recently filed a $60-million lawsuit accusing majority shareholders IAT Group and Palestinian chairman Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh of paying bribes to buy the banana and pineapple produce company in 1996 at a "ridiculously low price." The company denies wrongdoing.

Marvin Bush, the brother of President Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, joined the board of directors of Fresh Del Monte in 1998, after the alleged events took place. Marvin Bush was re-elected to the company's board this year for a term ending in 2005, and served on the board's critically important audit and compensation committees.

In October, Bush decided to resign from the board at the end of 2002. Without any public notice of Bush's planned departure by Fresh Del Monte, news of his pending resignation was not reported until last month.

Marvin Bush resigned for "personal reasons," according to Fresh Del Monte. In fact, he has resigned most of his board memberships, including Houston's HCC Insurance Holdings.

Fresh Del Monte, controlled by Abu-Ghazaleh's IAT Group, is based in the Cayman Islands but operates from headquarters in Coral Gables. It was a spinoff from the food giant Del Monte. Though the two companies bear similar names, they are no longer affiliated.

...more...

[rec_report]

5. I often think that Jeb Bush is much more corrupt than...

the Idiot Usurper, George W. Bush.

Cheers,
Polar Bear

[Judi Lynn]

6. Very interesting news. Republicans are BIG on exploitative companies

in Central and South America and the Caribbean, to the great suffering and hardship of all those many people.

Here's a good page showing connections between United Fruit, Del Monte, and the whole rotten mess, including Allen Dulles, former head of the CIA. Very unpleasant.
http://politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=1838&name=United-Fruit-Company



"Fruit doesn't fall far from the tree....."
Marvin _Bush.

[MasonJar]

4. I guess I'll be finding a new source of potassium.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Food for thought: Colombia & Iraq: Halliburton Makes the Connection

Colombia & Iraq: Halliburton Makes the Connection
By Daniel Leal Diaz
World War 4 Report
January 17, 2005

The Bogota daily El Tiempo recently reported that the US military contractor Halliburton has recruited 25 retired Colombian police and army officers to provide security for oil infrastructure in Iraq. One of the men, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the officers met in Bogota on Dec. 2 with a Colombian colonel working on behalf of Halliburton Latin America, who offered them monthly salaries of $7,000 to provide security for oil workers and facilities in several Iraqi cities. The claim was confirmed by a Colombian government source, said El Tiempo, but denied by a Halliburton representative in Bogota. US media have reported that former soldiers from Chile, South Africa and Spain are being recruited to beef up Iraqi security forces. Halliburton, the oil services giant once run by US Vice President Dick Cheney, has won billions of dollars in Iraq contracts, but has been accused of overcharging and accounting irregularities. (Al-Jazeera, Dec. 13; AP, Dec. 17)

Colombia is a member of President Bush's "coalition of the willing" in Iraq, but hasn't sent troops because its army is battling a guerilla insurgency with US aid at home. The wars in Iraq and Colombia are coming to reflect each other more and more.
(snip)

The US has transformed Colombia's soldiers into some of the best mercenaries in the world through decades of a mutating war that never seems to end: communism, drugs and--the latest version--terrorism. As Halliburton exploits this expertise for the Iraq campaign, Colombia becomes poorer in every dimension: violation of human rights, indiscriminate violence, loss of sovereignty and a crumbling democracy.
(snip/)

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2005/0117coliraq.htm

[rec_report]

9. Great post. Halliburton is a well-funded terrorist organization. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

10. Court tell-alls tie the elite to Colombia's paramilitary killings

May 19, 2007, 11:27PM
Court tell-alls tie the elite to Colombia's paramilitary killings

By JOHN OTIS
South America Bureau

~snip~
Mancuso accused small-town mayors, big-time congress members and Uribe's vice president and defense minister of collaborating with the gunmen.

He described active-duty police officers piloting paramilitary helicopters packed with cocaine. He said businesses ranging from Colombia's state-run oil company to U.S. banana exporters regularly paid the paramilitaries for protection from the guerrillas.

What's more, Mancuso laid much of the blame for the outlawed militias' expansion at the Colombian government's feet.

His accusations will be investigated by Colombian authorities, but political analysts say many seem accurate.

In March, Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to paying $1.7 million to the paramilitaries. Thirteen Colombian congressmen — 12 of whom are political allies of Uribe — have been jailed on charges of collaborating with the militias, and dozens of current and former government officials are under investigation.

"The government always said that we were making these things up," said Omaira Gomez of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, a human rights group that has long accused government officials of links with the paramilitaries. "What Mancuso did was to confirm what we've been saying for the past 10 years."
(snip)

Last week, five Congress members were arrested for attending a 2001 meeting with paramilitary leaders where they signed a document pledging to "refound" the nation. Some of the legislators later insisted they were forced at gunpoint to attend, a claim that provoked a belly laugh from Duque.

"There was total collaboration," Duque said. "Some politicians were complaining because they weren't invited to the meeting."
(snip)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4819513.html

[Judi Lynn]

11. LTTE, Washington Post: Human Rights Concerns in Colombia

Human Rights Concerns in Colombia
Monday, May 21, 2007; Page A12


That Robert D. Novak <"How to Lose an Ally," op-ed, May 10> would dismiss concerns over Colombia's gross human rights violations as protectionist hype is deplorable, given the evidence linking senior members of the Uribe administration to murderous paramilitary organizations and international drug-trafficking networks.

Colombia continues to endure a human rights and humanitarian crisis for which the Uribe administration bears some responsibility. To deny that, or to suggest that the legitimate concerns over the human and workers' rights record of the Uribe administration are part of a protectionist plot to block a trade deal, is disingenuous at best.

Mr. Novak worried about the United States' lack of allies in Latin America and argued that we must stand behind Mr. Uribe. However, our unconditional support for his administration and our failed policies in Colombia -- heavy on military aid and a counterproductive counter-narcotics strategy -- only reinforce negative perceptions of the United States in Latin America.

If the United States is really interested in developing allies there, it should start by offering meaningful support to the social and economic priorities identified by Latin America's leaders -- not further cutting development aid, offering well-worn platitudes about free trade, and turning a blind eye to human rights violations and the unpunished murders of hundreds of trade unionists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/20/AR2007052001033.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns