Monday, March 19, 2007

Bananas of Mass Destruction


Chiquita Brands, the company that wrote the book on US corporate imperialism in Latin America, has been fined $25 million by the Justice Department for paying protection bribes to "a violent Columbian paramilitary group" because they were judged to be a terrorist organization. Talk about the cost of globalization.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Justice Department has every right to fine Chiquita Brand $25 million for giving money to a known terrorist group. There are ways of protecting themselves other then paying off these terrorists. For instance, they could inform the US Government of these threats made against them as well as the Colombian Government and ask for protection. Also they could seek protection from the mercenary group Black Thorn which is also being used in Iraq. This way they won’t have to go through all the red tap in dealing with the government since this is the reason Black Thorn was establish. There are no excuse for there action. What they did was wrong. They supported terrorist and should be punished for it. However I do find this very funny because I am half Colombian.

Anonymous said...

honestly what is this world comming to, a banana company paying terrorist groups for protection, next it will be pinsol paying the kgb for protection. I am very happy that this company is getting fined, i hope all their profits in 2007 are destoryed, and i hope it rains so there is no profit of ckickita or however u spell it

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that the Chiquita Brands company shouldnt be being fined after being threatend by a terrorist group, but being helped and protected. Though I may not know the whole story, from this it seems that the US is overstepping their bounds against the Chiquita Brands company. It is not a US company and I dont think should be restricted by US laws. Also, if the US is trying to stop terrorism then we should be defending the Chiquita company againt the terrorist and militant groups threatening them, not fining them because their trying not to get killed. But as I said, I dont know the whole story and there could be other factors.

Anonymous said...

That sucks that this company is being forced to pay terrorists for protection or risk being terrorized themselves. They cant win, either they pay and get fined by the US for voilating our laws, or they obey the US and get attacked by the terrorists. Whatever they do they lose, sombody should do something so they arent being put in this situation.

Anonymous said...

its surprising to see what a company will do or who they will pay off for a profit. i mean paying off a what is essentially a terrorist group just cause you want protection. you would think it would just be better to grow the bananas some where safe for the workers.

Anonymous said...

It is interesting that Chiquita is being fined 25 million for being judged as a terrorist organization. I think it is an unfair fine because Chiquita is trying to protect itself not cause terror. Although it is bad that they bribed a violent Columbian paramilitary group. And with that bribe the organization probably will have an easier time causing terror. But still i do not think a fruit company trying to protect itself and grow should be fined so heavily.

Anonymous said...

Yes, they definitely deserve to be fined..it's not that hard to come to our government and say look there are terrorists threatening us. Obviously our government goes over the top with the terrorist defense issue (the recent wars). And the fact that they were warned in the past and continued this immature behavior astonishes me. What did they expect to receive when they discovered the payments? By the way, Chiquita in spanish means a tiny tiny banana...so I think a company with that kind of name had something coming :P

Anonymous said...

I think it's funny that the US government thinks that a banana company is a terrorist supporter. You have to do what you have to do to get those bananas to the americans. If you need to pay the bribes to save yourself, fine. Don't fine them 25 mil., when it's not their fault that the government has no control.

Anonymous said...

They deserved to be fined because they were warned in the past and continued this behavior. I pretty sure they are other ways of protection other than terrorist groups. But yeah...bananas

Anonymous said...

The Chiquita brand needs to be fined because its serioiusly not that hard to go to the United States and ask for help regarding terrorism because as we all know they are on top of that. Or instead of facilitating terrorist groups the brand could work with the Columbian government to establish some sort of anti-terrorist force because this is obviously not the first time this has happened. The governments in this world need to get together and work out the enforcement kinks in the anti-terrorist force.