The Crimes of Chiquita Brands in Colombia

Published by SINALTRAINAL – Colombia, 3/29/07

On December 6, 1928, in the municipal plaza of Ciénaga Magdalena, around
3000 men and women were assassinated for demanding that the U.S.
transnational corporation, United Fruit Company, resolve the demands of the
petitions presented to them by the union. On that day, the Colombian army,
commanded by General Carlos Cortés Vargas, fired their arms against the
masses of people to liquidate the workers’ protest.

This same transnational corporation, today known as CHIQUITA BRANDS or
BANADEX S.A., on May 15, 2004, confessed to having given 1.7 million dollars
between 1997 and 2004 to the Self-Defense Unit of Córdoba and Urabá (ACCU).
According to United States Judge Royce Lamberte, more than 100 payments were
approved by high-level management of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company
office. Due to the confession, a Federal Court provisionally accepted an
agreement between the transnational corporation and the public investigator
that the company will pay 25 million dollars in five installments of 5
million each.

In October 2001, the United States Change and Values Commission imposed a
fine of 100,000 dollars on Chiquita Brands for having bribed employees of
Colombia’s National Tax and Customs Department (DIAN) to expedite its harbor
and customs license in the city of Turbo in Urabá Antioqueño. The case in
Colombia was filed.

Total Impunity.

For this and other reasons, the permanent People’s Trial that has been
taking place in the country since April 2006, under coordination of the
SOCIAL OBSERVATORY OF TRANSNATIONAL COMPANIES, MEGAPROJECTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
IN COLOMBIA, initiated a trial process against CHIQUITA BRANDS for the
crimes of FINANCING TERRORIST GROUPS AND TRAFFICKING ARMS DESTINED FOR
PARAMILITARY GROUPS IN COLOMBIA. The opinion of the agricultural audience of
the court affirms: “In the case of the transnational corporation Chiquita
Brands, the relation between business and paramilitarism is very clear, as
proof was presented that said business had given significant financial
support to paramilitary groups, and in 2001 it transported 3000 AK 47 rifles
and five million missiles destined for paramilitary groups in Córdoba and
Urabá, who are the authors of several thousand horrendous crimes in that
area. According to the accusations, no penal or disciplinary process brought
forth by the authorities has produced any effect, leaving all these crimes
and proceedings in absolute impunity. On the contrary, those who denounce
these criminal actions are tried, turning the accusers into the accused. In
sum, the labor terror imposed in Colombia by the State and multinationals,
combine, in order to achieve their ends, legal and illegal strategies.”

The ethical and political trial that the Permanent People’s Tribunal
initiated in April of last year reinforces in a very important way the
agreement made between Chiquita Brands and the U.S. public investigator, but
there is still a lot of progress to be made, as there has been no justice
for the victims, families, social organizations and populations affected by
these atrocities, which have caused them so much pain.

We continue to demand that the General Investigator of the Nation clarify
these facts, as her silence not only makes her responsible by omission, but
also makes her an agent of impunity and a creator of new crimes for not
allowing there to be truth, justice, and reparation.

Like Chiquita Brands, Drummond Oil has been called to trial by the federal
courts of Alabama in the United States, accused of the assassination of
Sintramienergética union leaders, Valmore Locarno, Víctor Hugo Orcasita and
Gustavo Soler. This crime is only part of the series of cases brought in
front of the mining audience of the Permanent People’s Tribunal, celebrated
in Medellín last November.

Edgar Páez M.

Dirección Nacional

SINALTRAINAL – Colombia