U.S. companies accused of funding right-wing militias in Colombia

[The Straight Story]

U.S. companies accused of funding right-wing militias in Colombia


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States shares the blame for Colombia's suffering, a top Democrat said Thursday at a congressional hearing focusing on allegations that Cincinnati-based Chiquita and an Alabama coal company funded illegal right-wing militias.

The deaths of union activists in the Andean nation have been linked to the militias.

"We are complicit in the devastation of that society," said Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass. "So it is a moral imperative that requires us to help Colombia end that cycle of violence"

Delahunt, who chairs the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, spoke during a hearing in which Chiquita Brands International Inc. and the Drummond Co. Inc. were singled out as having close ties to Colombia's paramilitaries.

Chiquita has acknowledged having paid paramilitaries $1.7 million in protection money over six years. The company, which sold its operations in Colombia three years ago, was fined $25 million by the Justice Department this year for making the payments from 1997-2004.

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