1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Has Chiquita Banana been murdering people?

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by poncho, May 2, 2014.

  1. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2004
    Messages:
    19,657
    Likes Received:
    128
    Has Chiquita Banana been murdering people?

    by Jon Rappoport

    April 29, 2014

    The phrase “undue corporate influence” is usually applied to buying votes and shaping policy. But how about killing people?

    Here is an interview with Daniel Kovalik, an attorney who knows about this subject.

    An adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, Kovalik is a counsel for the United Steelworkers. He has worked on cases involving human rights abuses in Colombia. The Christian Science Monitor described him as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.” He has received a Project Censored Award for his article detailing the murder of trade unionists in Colombia.

    Q: Let’s clear away some confusion right at the beginning. We’re talking about the country of Colombia. People in the US have a vague picture of left-wing guerillas and right-wing paramilitaries fighting each other for political control and control of the drug trade: Both sides are crazy killers. Or something like that. So, saying that right-wing paramilitary death squads are killing civilians in Colombia…it doesn’t really sink in with most Americans. Comments?

    A: Yes, most people remember the death squads in El Salvador during the 1980’s, but few Americans know of the existence of the death squads in Colombia which have existed in various forms since 1962. These death squads, which continue to haunt Colombia, were the brain child of General William Yarborough who was tasked to carry out President Kennedy’s National Security Doctrine. This Doctrine, created in response to the “threat” of Vatican II and Liberation Theology, was really about destroying popular movements in Latin America, and targeted union leaders, peasant leaders and progressive Catholic clergy. In Colombia alone, 80 Catholic priests and 3 Catholic bishops have been killed since 1984, mostly by right-wing paramilitaries. As the Catholic Bishops Conference of Colombia has explained, priests continue to be murdered in that country because of their advocacy on behalf of the poor. And yet, their deaths, and the death squads responsible for them, are virtually unknown in this country.

    Q: These right-wing paramilitaries…some of them are paid by US corporations to kill union organizers and farmers and take over the farm land for companies like Chiquita Banana? Is that right? And Chiquita is guilty of being a contractor for murder? If so, how many murders is Chiquita responsible for?

    A: Chiquita, formerly known as United Fruit Company, is probably the most notorious company in Latin America. As we mourn the loss of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one will recall his recounting of the murder of hundreds of banana workers in his opus, One Hundred Years of Solitude. This fictional account was based on the real slaughter of banana workers who went on strike in the town of Cienaga, Colombia in 1928. They were killed by the Colombian military acting at the behest of the United Fruit Company. Fast forward to the present, and Chiquita admitted to paying Colombian paramilitaries $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004, and running them 3000 Kalashnikov rifles. According to former Colombian Attorney General Mario Iguaran, at least 4,000 Colombians were killed by these paramilitaries that Chiquita sponsored. Iguaran also opined that, if not for this support, the paramilitaries would not have been able to spread their tentacles throughout Colombia as they were able to do.

    Q: Has any successful legal action been taken against Chiquita?

    Read More At: http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/has-chiquita-banana-been-murdering-people/
     
Loading...