Judi Lynn has a post about the Chiquita Banana Case on LBN but Marcy Wheeler provides some very interesting revelations about the case that should be noted:
Marcy makes 2 important points here: 1. Chiquita's Republican Attorney Alleges Chertoff okayed payments and 2. the government is recommending that Chiquita be able to keep half of its profits from doing business under the protection of a terrorist organization
September 12, 2007
Banana Republic
by emptywheel
The Sentencing Memorandum the government filed in the Chiquita case reveals something rather interesting. Chiquita was an equal opportunity terrorist supporter. You see, from 1989 to 1997, Chiquita paid protection money to FARC and ELN, left wing terrorist groups. Then, after FARC and FLN were declared terrorist groups in 1997, Chiquita switched sides, paying protection money to right wing terrorist group AUC instead. Of course, Chiquita got in trouble because, in 2001, after the US declared AUC a terrorist organization, Chiquita kept right on paying their protection money, presumably having no other side to flip to. I guess it's nice not to be bound by ideology in your support of terrorist organizations.
In spite of funding the AUC long after Chiquita became aware they were breaking the law, the government is recommending that Chiquita be able to keep half of its profits from doing business under the protection of a terrorist organization. They're recommending a fine of half their profits, when the maximum fine was twice their profits for the period.
We knew that that was the government's recommendation for a fine. What is new, though, is that the government has decided not to indict the well-connected Republican lawyer Roderick Hills for recommending his clients engage in ongoing criminal behavior. Perhaps Michael Chertoff had something to say about that decision. You see, Hills alleged that Michael Chertoff, the guy who's in charge of our Homeland Security, okayed Chiquita's ongoing payments to right wing terrorists. The government denies those allegations in its Sentencing Memorandum.
The Department of Justice never authorized defendant Chiquita to continue under any circumstances the Company's payments to the AUC--not at the meeting on April 24, 2003, nor at any other point. To be sure, when first presented with this issue at the meeting on April 24th, Department of Justice officials acknowledged that the issue of continued payments was complicated. But this acknowledgment did not constitute an approval or authorization for defendant Chiquita to continue to break the law by paying a federally-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
-snip
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/09/banana-republic.htmlHere is the info Judy Lynn provided on LBN FROM THE AP:
Chiquita's US court settlement over paramilitary payments sparks outrage in Colombia
The Associated Press
Published: September 18, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia: Colombia's interior minister slammed a U.S. judge's approval of a US$25 million (€18 million) fine for Chiquita Brands International Inc., saying Tuesday the company was able to get off cheap for making payments to a militia responsible for killing thousands of Colombians.
Rights groups said Chiquita should be barred from ever doing business in Colombia.
A U.S. federal court on Monday court imposed the fine on Chiquita as part plea agreement in which the company acknowledged paying about US$1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to Colombian paramilitary groups.
The ruling sparked outrage within the staunchly pro-American government, as well as among victims of paramilitary violence.
"You can't help but feeling betrayed by the American justice system," said Interior Minister Carlos Holguin. "For US$25 million those who financed a mass massacre of Colombians were able to purchase impunity."
-SNIP
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/18/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Chiquita-Fine.php