Coca-Cola Co. Denies Involvement in Murder and Rape, Blames "U.S. Judicial System"

[ensho]

http://ow.ly/1hjWa


The Coca-Cola Company has long marketed itself as being synonymous with American values. However, after a recent complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court alleging they had knowledge of and sought to cover up acts of murder, rape, and attempted murder at a Guatemalan subsidiary, "America's Real Choice" may now have to face up to American justice.



The case Jose Armand Palacios v. The Coca-Cola Co. (102514/2010) has been filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and alleges that a subsidiary of Coca-Cola based in Guatemala City, INCASA, engaged in terror tactics against the families of Palacios and Jose Alberto Vicente Chavez because of their union activities. The plaintiffs allege that they were targeted with the full knowledge and support of company officials in Atlanta.

According to the case filed on February 25 (court document here):

Coke was directly involved in assisting its agent, INCASA, to achieve its goal of terminating Mr. Palacios for his union activities. Indeed, Coke was bargaining over the security of Mr. Palacios and his family as a way to get him to waive his right to employment and reinstatement. Mr. Palacios was nearly executed on January 28, 2006, the day after he declined again Coke's offer to give him security if he would waive his right to reinstatement. Coke shared the goal of its agent, INCASA, to get rid of Mr. Palacios, and weaken the union.
The court filing goes on to point out that the U.S. State Department has documented "a significant increase in the number of killings of trade union activists and their family members." It further states that the plaintiffs were subjected to violence and threats by local managers, that Vicente's son was murdered, and his daughter was gang-raped "as part of a campaign of violence directed at her father."

-long snip-

Update: The history of Coca-Cola's role in the over-exploitation and contamination of water in India is discussed at The Primate Diaries:

To make matters worse, the bottling plant was producing thousands of gallons of toxic sludge and, as the BBC reported, disposed of it by selling the carcinogenic material to local farmers as "fertilizer." High levels of pesticides were also reportedly found in the soft drink produced in the region leading to bans across the country. According to The Guardian, some Indian farmers even chose to spray their fields with Coca-Cola rather than use the more expensive pesticides from Monsanto.
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I wouldn't drink a coke if you paid me - stopped drinking all soda a number of years ago.

coke inc. should go the way of the dinosaur.

[yurbud]

1. good idea that last sentence. the rest is consistent with our treatment of Central America

[PDJane]

2. It's consistent

with American treatment of poorer countries all over the world, both corporations and government.

[yurbud]

3. that's why I was saddened but not surprised by Hillary's response to Latin America seeking new group

without the US. If we really wanted to turn a page with Latin America, we'd tell our government to stop carrying corporate water. We'd still get the products we want from them. Corporations would just have slightly smaller profit margins and workers would get slightly more for the fruits of their labor and the natural resources taken from their land.

[Odin2005]

4. Fuck C-C!!!

:grr:

[readmoreoften]

5. K&R--But really. Can someone compile a list of all the "boycottable" companies?

I think a full-on revolution is more likely than a successful boycott of all the murderous union-busting firms in the world. Let's keep a running list of the ones we know of:

Coke
Shell
Chiquita
Dole
Walmart

And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It's like boycotting the global company store. As farfetched as it seems, we'd have better luck taking it over than getting these US-backed paramilitary protected thugs to "change due to consumer pressure." All they need is a "greenwashing" campaign to make it all better.