A smoking banana in "banana republic?" Was flurry of document dump meant to obscure? March 14, 2007, Chiquita to Pay $25 M in Terror Case. My little DKos heart was beating fast.
AP story said .......several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC....The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and for a sizable percentage of the country's cocaine exports. .... In addition to paying the AUC, prosecutors said, Chiquita made payments to the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as control of the company's banana-growing area shifted.
I've been curious awhile since noting two Bush brothers' fingers dabbling in Fresh Del Monte Fruit. Learned a little about the misery caused by American businesses, military intervention, covert meddling, regime changes in many nations south of our border. No need to go bananas.
At first I thought I'd found a proverbial "missing link." But this only leads to a guy named Hagin who was a Chiquita veep while they paid terrorists. He left, and ended up in the White House. Nothing to see here.
AP story in several papers says Chiquita
....began paying the right-wing AUC after a meeting in 1997 and disguised the payments in company books. No later than in[sic] or about September 2000, defendant Chiquita's senior executives knew that the corporation was paying AUC and that the AUC was a violent paramilitary organization,"
Sigh of relief, can't find a story so it seems Southern District of Ohio USA was NOT FIRED. GREGORY G. LOCKHART?
www.usdoj.gov/usao/ohs/USA%20bio.html · [Update/correction-->It was not filed in Cincinnati as I assumed. It filed in D.C. by "interim appointee", as of Sept. '06, Jeffrey A. Taylor.] He took a good long time investigating. Seems they'll pay $25 million penalty? But I can't find a list of who knew what when? Maybe former Chiquita vice-president Hagin is the first #43 picked for terrorist expertise and maybe Fox Noise is right that part of his White House job for W. is "administrative matters, intelligence and other national security issues." Heckuva job W.
Wikipedia says much more but Poppy got bananas way back when:
In 1969 Zapata Corporation, a company in which George H. W. Bush held significant interest, acquired a controlling interest in United Fruit. The president of Zapata was Robert Gow, a friend of the Bush family. Robert's father, Ralph Gow, was on United Fruit's board of directors.
United Fruit is precurser to "Chiquita." They peeled off Columbian bananas from their bunch in 2004. Sold it shortly after their mea culpa. So no links to Bu$hco? Maybe not in Columbia, not anymore, and they donated to both parties. (Ouch, link to short version of abuses, and working in Shrub's campaign, slid downpage.)
www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=202
This site and links are so good on finding baaaaad corporations, its hard to exit back to Dkos. None of the bananas fall far from the bunch. For me its back to boycott bananas and get potasium from potatoes.
WaPo says: AUC was labelled terrorist in September 2001. Chiquita told on themselves in 2003 and even put aside $25 million for the fine. After years of "investigation/negotiation" papers are filed this week without naming the execs so far. ( but the linky goes to blank page? Linky doofus here.) It is just accidental it is filed after election and Chiquita delayed SEC quarterly report -- so they know what to declare on the $25 million.
IMHO US banana barons sold us all the sleezy connotation of "banana republic" just as our oil barons sold us Iraqi WMD. Deja vu. Practice?
We understand purifying holy places after Shrub walks there, but the horror story of what is still happening to poor native Americans goes back to 1800's. Too long to be ignorant of it or keep repeating it. Keep scrolling down using pesticides outlawed here, spraying with workers in fields.
Joseph Hagin, Deputy chief of staff, Date of birth: January 6, 1956,
A former vice president at Chiquita Brands International, Hagin is in charge of the daily operations of the White House. He was deputy campaign manager in George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
• When the President Needs Someone He Can Trust, He Turns to Big Joe, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 20, 2003 Joseph HaginDeputy chief of staffDate of birth: January 6, 1956A former vice president at Chiquita Brands International, Hagin is in charge of the daily operations of the White House. He was deputy campaign manager in George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.• When the President Needs Someone He Can Trust, He Turns to Big Joe, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 20, 2003
April 2006 Fox News --->(sorry - checking dates - usually unreliable source)
The job of deputy chief of staff for policy is being given to Joel Kaplan, now the White House's deputy budget director. The promotion of Kaplan would leave Bush with three deputy chiefs of staff: Rove, Kaplan and Joe Hagin, who oversees administrative matters, intelligence and other national security issues.
US Attorney GREGORY G. LOCKHART. Mr. Lockhart was sworn in as United States Attorney for ... www.usdoj.gov/usao/ohs/USA%20bio.html · Cached page Is Hagin still in THE house?
Here's a not quite up to date history of their little problems.
United Fruit Company - ChronologyThe cartoon was baptized as Miss Chiquita Banana ... declares that the company would not negotiate as ... protection money" to different terrorist ... www.unitedfruit.org/chron.htm · Cached page
Help. I can't get this timeline straight. When did Hagin know they were on terror list? He couldn't e-mail Chiquita after 9/11? Hint they should not give money to terrorist? Maybe he just didn't know. Any plausible denial? Was he busy with Scooter?
This is first diary with new setup --I'm so sorry it is such a mess. When I try to move links, I lose them. Going for broke -- trying first poll.