Chiquita ordered to pay for funding paramilitary squad
June 11, 2024 8:12 PM Subscribe
US banana giant ordered to pay $38m to families of Colombian men killed by death squads A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad, after the US banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2004.
Previously, previouslier, previousliest
Previously, previouslier, previousliest
I had no idea the United Fruit Company was still committing murder for profit
posted by vorpal bunny at 8:46 PM on June 11 [8 favorites]
posted by vorpal bunny at 8:46 PM on June 11 [8 favorites]
I had no idea the United Fruit Company was still committing murder for profit
Just reading the headline I was like - well, that was a long time coming, but good! Then I see the dates and I'm like oh.
posted by Literaryhero at 9:31 PM on June 11 [15 favorites]
Just reading the headline I was like - well, that was a long time coming, but good! Then I see the dates and I'm like oh.
posted by Literaryhero at 9:31 PM on June 11 [15 favorites]
“In my experience, corporations operating in the global economy will do whatever they can get away with. We just showed them that there are real consequences for corporate outlaws.”
This is fantastic news and I really do hope it inspires others, and with escalating response. Jail time for execs and investors and of course higher financial penalties at every turn. It's incredible we've an apparatus to bring delicious food in abundance around the world, but it's criminal how we decide to distribute that food and the tiny minority of people who steal a majority of wealth from the workers who earned it. It's not okay companies can execute people and get away with it, with the extreme consequences being a three decade ordeal that amounts to a problem for accounting. If I paid for even one terrorist they would not let me be free man afterward, but if I register an LLC, who knows what limit to heinous crimes I can commit and avoid the penalties for.
Keep it up! More justice is yet to be served, there should not be a Chiquita corporation at all and the Columbian people have been robbed of hundreds of billions of dollars.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:16 PM on June 11 [10 favorites]
This is fantastic news and I really do hope it inspires others, and with escalating response. Jail time for execs and investors and of course higher financial penalties at every turn. It's incredible we've an apparatus to bring delicious food in abundance around the world, but it's criminal how we decide to distribute that food and the tiny minority of people who steal a majority of wealth from the workers who earned it. It's not okay companies can execute people and get away with it, with the extreme consequences being a three decade ordeal that amounts to a problem for accounting. If I paid for even one terrorist they would not let me be free man afterward, but if I register an LLC, who knows what limit to heinous crimes I can commit and avoid the penalties for.
Keep it up! More justice is yet to be served, there should not be a Chiquita corporation at all and the Columbian people have been robbed of hundreds of billions of dollars.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:16 PM on June 11 [10 favorites]
Cool. Now make Coca-Cola pay for their atrocities.
posted by neonamber at 10:46 PM on June 11 [13 favorites]
posted by neonamber at 10:46 PM on June 11 [13 favorites]
Not to be a bleeding-heart liberal or anything, but if we can't have bananas without funding right-wing death squads then maybe we shouldn't have bananas.
It hasn't been possible to pay your taxes without inadvertently funding right-wing death squads in the form of US military/foreign policy for the past century at least.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:49 PM on June 11 [15 favorites]
It hasn't been possible to pay your taxes without inadvertently funding right-wing death squads in the form of US military/foreign policy for the past century at least.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:49 PM on June 11 [15 favorites]
So they operated their own private military and performed kill missions, a function usually reserved for governments or their authorized agents ... and they got away with it?
$38 million is a lot of money, sure, but in most jurisdictions, someone goes to jail or at least the penalty exists. These guys get a billionaire's slap on the wrist and they get to go home to their families, not at all like the people they MURDERED.
WTAF? We really are screwed.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 11:56 PM on June 11 [9 favorites]
$38 million is a lot of money, sure, but in most jurisdictions, someone goes to jail or at least the penalty exists. These guys get a billionaire's slap on the wrist and they get to go home to their families, not at all like the people they MURDERED.
WTAF? We really are screwed.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 11:56 PM on June 11 [9 favorites]
For a company with annual revenue of $3.84bn a fine of $38m is not a punishment, it is just part of the cost of doing business.
posted by Hogshead at 12:26 AM on June 12 [17 favorites]
posted by Hogshead at 12:26 AM on June 12 [17 favorites]
New evidence presented to the Florida courts also showed that Chiquita allowed the AUC to use its ports to import automatic rifles and its banana boats to smuggle cocaine across the seas, human rights lawyers at International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) said.
i'm sorry i just keep looking at this sentence trying to parse my thoughts and all i feel is rage
38 million is a joke
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:54 AM on June 12 [13 favorites]
i'm sorry i just keep looking at this sentence trying to parse my thoughts and all i feel is rage
38 million is a joke
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:54 AM on June 12 [13 favorites]
In Rebecca Solnit & collaborators' Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases, there is the humbling and amazing map that taught me a lot about how bananas and other fruits (but mostly bananas) have so much political and evil baggage connected to them. Like, the demand for bananas from mid-20th century onwards has caused so much bloodshed. It's horrifyingly fascinating. I wish I could find the essay online that is attached to the map because it lays it so clearly.
I was given the Infinite Cities atlas/essay set as a Christmas gift and learned a lot about history, culture, and near forgotten public figures.
posted by Kitteh at 5:17 AM on June 12 [11 favorites]
I was given the Infinite Cities atlas/essay set as a Christmas gift and learned a lot about history, culture, and near forgotten public figures.
posted by Kitteh at 5:17 AM on June 12 [11 favorites]
eustatic, I definitely thought of you when I was reading the NOLA book from it! Such good stuff. I love that it allows the space for NOLA to be thought of a liminal magical space but doesn't shy away from the ugly history of the area, past and present.
posted by Kitteh at 5:29 AM on June 12
posted by Kitteh at 5:29 AM on June 12
Kitteh: that taught me a lot about how bananas and other fruits (but mostly bananas) have so much political and evil baggage connected to them.
I'm currently reading "Cotton is the Mother of Poverty", and it's reminding me of "Coffeeland", and that reminded me of "Sweetness and Power", and it feels like they all have the same basic story as bananas:
Some group of people somewhere in the world was living on fertile, productive land. They had many different crops and food sources, so malnutrition was nonexistent (at least one of your many foods would have the nutrients you needed) and famine was rare (at least one of your many foods would thrive no matter that year's weather).
Then Westerners showed up and decided that they wanted just one product from that place. Cotton, coffee, sugar, bananas, (cocoa, rubber, wool, wheat, rice, timber, etc, etc). Local food variety was destroyed so that massive amounts of that one product could be grown and exported.
Result: Extremes of violence to make it happen, malnourishment and famines when they succeeded.
Meanwhile, Western malnourishment and famines disappeared because we now have many different food sources from all over the world.
posted by clawsoon at 5:39 AM on June 12 [19 favorites]
I'm currently reading "Cotton is the Mother of Poverty", and it's reminding me of "Coffeeland", and that reminded me of "Sweetness and Power", and it feels like they all have the same basic story as bananas:
Some group of people somewhere in the world was living on fertile, productive land. They had many different crops and food sources, so malnutrition was nonexistent (at least one of your many foods would have the nutrients you needed) and famine was rare (at least one of your many foods would thrive no matter that year's weather).
Then Westerners showed up and decided that they wanted just one product from that place. Cotton, coffee, sugar, bananas, (cocoa, rubber, wool, wheat, rice, timber, etc, etc). Local food variety was destroyed so that massive amounts of that one product could be grown and exported.
Result: Extremes of violence to make it happen, malnourishment and famines when they succeeded.
Meanwhile, Western malnourishment and famines disappeared because we now have many different food sources from all over the world.
posted by clawsoon at 5:39 AM on June 12 [19 favorites]
I'm still waiting for Pepsi to compensate all those who were tortured in the coup they instigated in Chile.
posted by signal at 6:36 AM on June 12 [6 favorites]
posted by signal at 6:36 AM on June 12 [6 favorites]
38 million is a joke
It’s not enough, but I think it’s important to remember it is the start of something, not the end.
posted by corb at 7:45 AM on June 12 [9 favorites]
It’s not enough, but I think it’s important to remember it is the start of something, not the end.
posted by corb at 7:45 AM on June 12 [9 favorites]
I wish that throughout our legal system, damages were denominated in % points of market cap or profit.
To give an example from startupland, people are compensated in both dollars and equity. In any role I’ve ever taken which ends in “officer,” my equity offer was denominated in % points. That’s happened when I’ve been an advisor as well. For all others, SOP is to denominate the equity offer in $ value based on the latest valuation of the company. It is easy to blind people with zeros. Now of course, that equity is funny money that you cannot spend and there’s a good chance you may never be able to spend. But it sure is a lot of it, and imaginary money spends just as well in your head as real money. People start to squirm when you ask them to express that figure in % points of the company as a whole, or worse yet as a fraction of the available option pool, or god forbid relative to the founders.
posted by 1024 at 7:45 AM on June 12 [12 favorites]
To give an example from startupland, people are compensated in both dollars and equity. In any role I’ve ever taken which ends in “officer,” my equity offer was denominated in % points. That’s happened when I’ve been an advisor as well. For all others, SOP is to denominate the equity offer in $ value based on the latest valuation of the company. It is easy to blind people with zeros. Now of course, that equity is funny money that you cannot spend and there’s a good chance you may never be able to spend. But it sure is a lot of it, and imaginary money spends just as well in your head as real money. People start to squirm when you ask them to express that figure in % points of the company as a whole, or worse yet as a fraction of the available option pool, or god forbid relative to the founders.
posted by 1024 at 7:45 AM on June 12 [12 favorites]
It’s not enough, but I think it’s important to remember it is the start of something, not the end.
This is so hard. On one hand, I am 100% with you, and this award will be life changing to the families that need it most. And having some accountability, any at all, is so much better than none. The difference between “some accountability, not enough but now the doors are open for working towards more,” and “absolute impunity” is enormous. In many cases, it truly is worth everything just to land a scratch on your oppressor, if only to prove a god can bleed.
But if Chiquita’s fuck shit netted them a single dollar over $38m, this is an encouragement for them to continue, practically an attaboy.
I took a class on structuring incentives with organizations (with the intent of directing behavior) as part of my studies into game theory. I keep thinking back to one case study:
There was a modest school in a wealthy town filled with extremely busy parents. The school had a problem with parents not picking up their children on time. Kids can’t be left alone, so teachers were required to wait until the very last parent arrived. This unpaid work cut into their personal lives and was starting to get ridiculous, so after much debate, a fine was instituted. It was meant to be something nominal, in a similar vein as disposable bag fees, I think it was $5-$15 or something for every 15 minutes a parent was late. Not something you’d want to pay if you didn’t have to, but not something which would ruin you if there was an emergency.
However, many parents immediately realized that an hour of late fines was far less expensive than an hour of childcare, and overwhelmingly chose to take up the school on it’s generous offer to provide a lower-cost service.
posted by 1024 at 7:59 AM on June 12 [13 favorites]
This is so hard. On one hand, I am 100% with you, and this award will be life changing to the families that need it most. And having some accountability, any at all, is so much better than none. The difference between “some accountability, not enough but now the doors are open for working towards more,” and “absolute impunity” is enormous. In many cases, it truly is worth everything just to land a scratch on your oppressor, if only to prove a god can bleed.
But if Chiquita’s fuck shit netted them a single dollar over $38m, this is an encouragement for them to continue, practically an attaboy.
I took a class on structuring incentives with organizations (with the intent of directing behavior) as part of my studies into game theory. I keep thinking back to one case study:
There was a modest school in a wealthy town filled with extremely busy parents. The school had a problem with parents not picking up their children on time. Kids can’t be left alone, so teachers were required to wait until the very last parent arrived. This unpaid work cut into their personal lives and was starting to get ridiculous, so after much debate, a fine was instituted. It was meant to be something nominal, in a similar vein as disposable bag fees, I think it was $5-$15 or something for every 15 minutes a parent was late. Not something you’d want to pay if you didn’t have to, but not something which would ruin you if there was an emergency.
However, many parents immediately realized that an hour of late fines was far less expensive than an hour of childcare, and overwhelmingly chose to take up the school on it’s generous offer to provide a lower-cost service.
posted by 1024 at 7:59 AM on June 12 [13 favorites]
These are damages to the victims from a civil case. The company was prosecuted and plead guilty to the crimes in 2007 for a $25 million fine and five years of probation (not sufficient punishment imo)
I note from the DOJ press release that “Chiquita sold Banadex to a Colombian buyer in June 2004.”
A low level operative who acted as a bagman in transferring the payments got a 36 month prison sentence last year but as the article notes: “The conviction and imprisonment of Luis Alberto Agudelo Jiménez, a relatively low-level operative for Chiquita’s Colombia-based security staff, is a reminder that, despite mountains of evidence from its own archives, not a single Chiquita executive or manager has been penalized for authorizing and organizing millions of dollars in payments to groups responsible for scores of human rights violations, including massacres, homicides, and forced disappearances that produced thousands of victims.”
posted by interogative mood at 8:24 AM on June 12 [4 favorites]
I note from the DOJ press release that “Chiquita sold Banadex to a Colombian buyer in June 2004.”
A low level operative who acted as a bagman in transferring the payments got a 36 month prison sentence last year but as the article notes: “The conviction and imprisonment of Luis Alberto Agudelo Jiménez, a relatively low-level operative for Chiquita’s Colombia-based security staff, is a reminder that, despite mountains of evidence from its own archives, not a single Chiquita executive or manager has been penalized for authorizing and organizing millions of dollars in payments to groups responsible for scores of human rights violations, including massacres, homicides, and forced disappearances that produced thousands of victims.”
posted by interogative mood at 8:24 AM on June 12 [4 favorites]
Smash it up, turn it into a worker-owned co-op.
posted by user92371 at 9:58 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
posted by user92371 at 9:58 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]
This is just the first case, representing less than 1% of deaths. So that that $38M and multiply by 100.
posted by hypnogogue at 1:26 PM on June 12 [2 favorites]
posted by hypnogogue at 1:26 PM on June 12 [2 favorites]
So when a person murders someone we send them to prison. Send the company to prison in this case, or in plain language roll it up, sell off all the assets, and charge the people who gave the orders with the murders.
posted by PennD at 3:57 PM on June 12
posted by PennD at 3:57 PM on June 12
Mod note: Comment and a couple responses removed for insensitive content, per the Content Policy. Jokes about serious topics are tricky, best to limit them in such situations.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:04 AM on June 13 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:04 AM on June 13 [1 favorite]
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