US judge allows Colombians to sue Chiquita

[Judi Lynn]

June 2011 Last updated at 20:57 ET
US judge allows Colombians to sue Chiquita

A judge in the United States has dismissed an attempt by banana producer Chiquita to halt multi-million-dollar compensation cases being brought by at least 4,000 Colombians.

They allege they or their relatives were tortured or killed in banana-growing areas by paramilitaries paid by the company.

Chiquita, which is based in the US, has admitted paying paramilitaries. But it says it will defend itself against the Colombians' claims.

In 2007, Chiquita was fined $25m (£15m) in the US for paying a Colombian paramilitary group - the United Self-Defence Forces or AUC - that the American government had listed as a terrorist organisation.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13650770

[Wilms]

1. I wonder who will front Chiquita?

After all, their old attorney has a new gig protecting other interests.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x9608

[EFerrari]

2. This is huge. I can't believe it was allowed to happen.n/t

[Peace Patriot]

3. Allowing the case doesn't mean that the judge will find Chiquita guilty.

It could be kind of like the Ecuador/Chevron-Texaco case, where, a while back, a U.S. judge allowed Chevron to move the case to Ecuador, possibly thinking it would die there (certainly Chevron was thinking that--it was their motion). But, lo and behold, Chevron found that they couldn't rig the Ecuadoran justice system.

In this case--the Colombians vs Chiquita--it's POSSIBLE that the goal in allowing the case is to exhaust the resources of these poor people, then rule against them and even make them pay Chiquita's attorney's fees.

In other words, what we may be looking at is legal maneuvering that might ultimately benefit Chiquita.

I'll admit that getting the case allowed was a big legal hurdle for the poor Colombians. It's the first big step in such cases. And I think it gives them deposition and discovery powers. (They get to depose all relevant parties and dig up further evidence.) But I find it almost outside the realm of possibility that poor Colombians can get justice in the U.S. court system, especially after a decade of rigging of the U.S. court system by the Bush Junta--and also considering who Obama put in charge of the U.S. justice system--Chiquita's former lawyer, Eric Holder!

I don't think Holder has anything directly to do with this case--it's a private lawsuit--but the DoJ and also the U.S. State Department could conceivably intervene on Chiquita's behalf and/or be maneuvering behind the scenes (where most important decisions are made in this country, anyway). I can't help but think of the very similar, current Drummond Coal case (also Colombia, also U.S. corp hiring death squads and murdering trade unionists), with the U.S. State Department sending a letter to the judge to discourage him from requiring Alvaro Uribe (former president and Bush Cartel tool in Colombia) to testify. National Security, blah, blah, blah. And we can only guess what that means but I think it is very, very bad. What reason could the U.S. have for protecting Colombia's filthy, bloody-handed, Bush Cartel "made man" Uribe?

And they clearly ARE protecting him, including having helped him to spirit death squad witnesses out of Colombia, on mere drug charges, to the U.S., and burying them in the U.S. federal prison system, by complete sealing of their cases in federal court in Washington DC (Holder)--out of the reach of Colombian prosecutors and over their objections, and very likely helping the chief spying witness against Uribe to flee Colombia and get instant asylum in Panama as a "political refugee." They have also helped "launder" of Uribe's image, with his appointment to a prestigious international legal commission, and academic sinecures at Georgetown and Harvard (where they teach that "we must look forward not backward" on the crimes of the rich and the powerful).

If Uribe's testimony is important in the Drummond case, it might also be important in the Chiquita case, and if either case discovers Uribe complicity in these death squad murders, this could lead to Bush Jr and the Bush Junta.

These rightwing death squads that Chiquita and Drummond Coal were hiring have close ties to the Colombian military and the Uribe government. Throughout all this horror, the Colombian military was receiving $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid, PLUS "training," "technical assistance" and God know what-all from the U.S. military and its 'contractors' in Colombia, working very closely with the Colombian military at numerous military bases. Early this year, the U.S. State Department "fined" Blackwater for "unauthorized trainings" of "foreign persons" IN COLOMBIA "for use in Iraq and Afghanistan." What was THAT about? And, before Uribe left his position as Bush Cartel operative in Colombia (ahem, president), the U.S. ambassador extracted a signature from him, on the secretly negotiated U.S./Colombia military agreement, granting "total diplomatic immunity" to all U.S. military personnel and all U.S. military 'contractors' in Colombia. This occurred circa 2009-2010, after more than a decade of U.S. military presence in Colombia. Why did they need this signature so late in the day?

So, yeah, U.S. "national security" may well be involved in these Colombian death squad cases, if you think keeping Alvaro Uribe's lip zipped is in our "national interest."

I mention all this to support my fear that the U.S. justice system may be incapable of delivering justice in the Chiquita case. The injured Colombians may have gotten it into court but there are a lot of hurdles ahead, not the least of which is the U.S. government working against them to insure injustice.