Chiquita

by Garry Leech

Over the past five years Colombia has achieved impressive economic growth as foreign investment has increased dramatically. According to most analysts, it is the policies of President Alvaro Uribe that have created the security conditions required by foreign companies to operate in the country. A significant portion of Colombia's economic growth has resulted from investment in the country's extractive sector, reflecting the confidence of foreign investors in the capacity of the Colombian military to safeguard their operations in the country's rural conflict zones. However, analysts who praise the Uribe government for Colobmia's economic growth often ignore the fact that the enhanced security provided by the Colombian military has been achieved through an increase in human rights abuses perpetrated against the rural population.

Six months ago, when news of the deal struck by the Chiquita executives with the US Dept of Justice hit the press, the Colombian public was justifiably outraged that none of the managers of the North American company would personally pay any penalty. The Colombian media - notably, Caracol, RCN, and Caracol - generously granted me air time to call for the extradition of the Chiquita executives. Although this point of view was quite popular in Colombia, the concept of extraditing North Americans to Colombia met with a great deal of skepticism. Nobody thought it was possible. After all, no gringo has ever been extradited to Colombia before. But now it's a real possibility.

Statement from the Colombia Action Network and call to action against Plan Colombia.

There is a growing debate in Congress concerning Plan Colombia. There needs to be an end to US military aid to Colombia. The almost 5 billion dollars the US has sent in military aid since 2000 has had horrendous results in Colombia. It has paid for military and para-military human rights abuses including massacres, disappearances, kidnapping, and threats of social justice and labor activists and their families.

Statement and analysis from the Colombia Action Network, presented at the Latin American Solidarity Conference in Chicago, April 13-15 2007.

In March, banana giant Chiquita plead guilty in Washington to doing business with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia or AUC, a right-wing paramilitary organization that is responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia’s civil war. The State Department listed the AUC as a terrorist organization in 1997. Despite this, the top 8 Chiquita executives paid the AUC 1.7 million from 1997-2004. In addition, in 2001 Chiquita used one of their ships to deliver 3,000 AK-47 rifles & more than 2.5 million bullets for the AUC.

Colombia's intelligence services compiled lists of union activists and gave them to right-wing paramilitaries, who then carried out assassinations, according to captured documents and a key witness.

The U.S. Congress is considering a proposed trade agreement with Colombia, and news of the government-paramilitary collaboration has put passage of that legislation in further jeopardy.