Multinational Chiquita
Colombia angered by US settlement with Chiquita Brands
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Bogota - Colombian officials Tuesday expressed anger at a 25-million-dollar settlement between the United States Justice Department and multinational Chiquita Brands for payments the banana producer made to paramilitaries.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth on Monday approved the deal agreed to in March under which Chiquita will pay 25 million dollars for having made payments to paramilitaries for nearly six years to obtain protection for its employees in Colombia.
The US-based company violated anti-terrorism laws when it paid more than 1.7 million dollars to the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym as the AUC, between 1997 and February 2004 through its former subsidiary in the South American nation, US prosecutors said.
Chiquita's former Colombian unit Banadex allegedly made more than 100 payments to the AUC in two regions, Uraba and Santa Marta, where it had banana-producing operations, with knowledge of the company's headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio.
One former Colombian official said the deal casts doubt on US President George W Bush's commitment to the fight against terrorism, since Colombian paramilitaries - accused of many human rights abuses - are considered terrorist groups by many countries and international organizations.
'What would the United States say if a country that has one of those responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks let him go free upon payment of a fine?' former Colombian attorney general Alfonso Gomez asked.
He asked Colombian authorities to re-think pursuing extradition proceedings against Chiquita Brands executives, claiming they were not punished for their support of extreme-right paramilitaries. He also said the Latin American country should reconsider extraditing Colombian drug traffickers to the US.
US lawyer Paul Wolff, who served as legal counsel to several people who lost relatives to paramilitary violence in the banana- growing region of Uraba, told Colombian radio on Tuesday that the decision is marked by 'impunity' and said there was still a possibility to try Chiquita executives in Colombian courts.
Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said Monday the US Justice Department's operations should be respected, but added 'That does not mean that public opinion does not experience a certain perplexity when such an important case does not have the consequence of anyone going to jail.'
Media commentaries said the fine was small compared to other cases, with the daily El Tiempo on Tuesday stressing the fine was only a quarter of the 100 million dollars that the McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 team will have to pay for spying on rival Ferrari.
RCN radio commentator Juan Gossain compared the fee to the 689- million-dollar fine that the European Union imposed on Microsoft for abusing its dominant position. Gossain interpreted the difference in amounts between the settlements to mean that 'a computer is worth 29 times more than the life of one Colombian.'
Paramilitary bosses have said since that 'the multinational company previously funded FARC (the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), when FARC had the hegemony in the Uraba region.'
