Chiquita found liable for financing paramilitary group
Chiquita found liable for financing paramilitary group
A Florida jury on Monday found banana company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).
Can we finally agree capitalism doesn’t give a fuck about anything but profits and therefore CANNOT self regulate?
Jon Stewart had an excellent monologue about the myth of corporate morality yesterday.
I love how they gave Jon Stewart his show back and he's been using it to burn every single thing he can, including them.
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isn't that the point? The corruption has tricked us to believing they can regulate themselves or are even not amoral about social issues. Companies make profit -- that is their singular goal. The laws and regulations control their behavior, not 'good will' or whatever we pretend motivates individuals
It's the definition of capitalism
It's money. Every other form of economy has also exploited people for gain.
Money existed before capitalism. Capitalism started in the 1700s. Money far predates capitalism. Plus, my comment is that capitalism must be regulated by outside regulators like governments. Conservatives have pushed deregulation forever and it’s made things worse. Capitalism worked far better in the heavy regulation days after WW2.
In this case, I can believe that Chiquita didn't set out to finance the AUC, but was unfortunate in that their banana plantations fell into AUC-controlled territory, and therefore were extorted for protection money.It's like if I owned an Italian restaurant, the mafia comes in and extorts me for protection money, then the feds come and arrest me for financing the mafia. What was I supposed to do?edit: I didn't know about Chiquita. Thanks for the replies and info!
No, it's like if you owned a massive chain of Italian restaurants that notoriously exploited people, and you were actively paying the mafia to intimidate your workers and to bust unions.
The judge saw through Chiquita's ridiculous fabrication, I'm disappointed to see you parroting it here.
Chiquita / United Fruit have long been involved in oppressing and destabilizing south America for profit.
There is enough proof in the trials to show they were not unhappily contributing to paramilitary groups.
Chiquita has been bad for a long, long time. Even among the banana companies, they're famously evil.
The fine? $38 million.
Chiquita Brands International's profits in 2023? $3.1 billion.
That's a slap on the wrist if anything. Just the cost of doing business I guess.
Again?
Implying they ever stopped.
You can’t think all of those private military contractors get all of their money from Uncle Sam.
Corporations have been using mercenaries for hundreds of years, they’ve just refined their PR departments lately.
We live in a sad world when this kind of thing keeps happening.
.......you new here? And be "here" I mean Earth.
Again?
At this point it's not a surprise, it's when asked to name paramilitary financers, first name that comes up is chiquita.
PEOPLE DIED
PEOPLE NEED TO BE JAILED OVER THIS
Lol. You and I both know that's not gonna happen.
Damn that's crazy. I've never heard of bananas being associated with violence... anytime in the last 120-140 years...
What year is this?!?
Guess they don’t have friends in the CIA or state department like they used to.
Isn't Chiquita the corporate heir to United Fruit?
yes
Again?
Exactly my response!!
Is this an article from 70 years ago?
For Colombians who suffered at the hand of the guerrilla-paramilitary conflict, it was not 70 years ago.
The paramilitary group mentioned in the article, AUC, disbanded around 2006-2008.
Thank you for pointing that out.
Again?!
Who's going to post that 2 nickels meme?
War is a racket.
Eh same old same old... Wait they're getting "punished" this time? Well that's new I guess.
Over bananas boys. Bananas.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Florida jury on Monday found banana company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).
The jury in the civil case, in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, found that “Chiquita knowingly provided substantial assistance to the AUC to a degree sufficient to create a foreseeable risk of harm to others.”
Chiquita, one of the world’s largest banana producers, has been ordered to pay a total of $38.3 million to the families of eight victims of the AUC, which was a far-right paramilitary group that was designated a terrorist organization by the US.
In 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty to making over 100 payments to the AUC totaling over $1.7 million despite the group being designated a terrorist organization.
An unnamed company executive had told the Justice Department that the payments had been made under the threat of violence, according to the release.
In a social media post, Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, reacted to the American jury’s Tuesday decision and asked why the same ruling was not made in his home country.
The original article contains 414 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Guess Dole got soul
I had a guy tell me the US doesn't meddle in Central or South America anymore. 🤔
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?
b a n a n a
That's bananas!