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Chiquita paid colombian terror group for services { March 15 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150132mar15,1,3035294.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hedhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703150132mar15,1,3035294.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Chiquita to pay $25 million in terrorism probe
By Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press
Published March 15, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Banana company Chiquita Brands International said Wednesday that it has agreed to a $25 million fine and to admit paying a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming region.
The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with terrorist organizations in Colombia.
In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym AUC.
Prosecutors said the company made the payments in exchange for protection for its workers. The company also made similar payments to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, according to prosecutors. The group also is known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.
Colombia's banana-growing region is a zone over which leftist rebels and far-right paramilitaries have fought viciously. Most companies have extensive security operations to protect employees in the area.
"The information filed today is part of a plea agreement, which we view as a reasoned solution to the dilemma the company faced several years ago," Chiquita's chief executive, Fernando Aguirre, said in a statement. "The payments made by the company were always motivated by our good-faith concern for the safety of our employees."
Such arrangements between companies and either guerrillas or paramilitaries are not uncommon, but it is impossible to know how much money is paid each year.
Chiquita sold its Colombian banana operations in June 2004.
Details of the settlement were not included in court documents, but Aguirre said it would pay $25 million in fines, which it set aside this year. The company reported the deal to the Securities and Exchange Commission. A plea hearing was scheduled for Monday.
The payments were approved by senior executives at Chiquita, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Prosecutors said Chiquita began paying the AUC after a meeting in 1997 and disguised the payments in company books.
In April 2003, company officials and lawyers approached the Justice Department and told prosecutors that they had been making the payments. According to court documents, the payments continued for months.
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Colombian rebels
Civil conflict in Colombia has produced a range of rebel and paramilitary groups spanning the political spectrum. U.S. prosecutors said Chiquita Brands International made payments to the AUC and FARC, two of the principal groups:
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)--The AUC's origins can be traced to the paramilitaries established by drug lords in the 1980s. The group says it took up arms for self defense in the absence of government-provided security, but others see it as little more than a drug cartel.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)--Founded in 1964, the Marxist group vowed a broad-based struggle to overthrow Colombia's government. But attacks by right-wing paramilitaries have changed its tactics, and the group is now believed to be involved in drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping.
-- Compiled from the BBC, news reports
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
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