Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 7. April 2011 / Time Line April 7, 2011
Version 3.004/07/2011
National Security Archive Update, April 7, 2011
The Chiquita Papers
Banana Giant's Paramilitary Payoffs Detailed in Trove of
Declassified Legal, Financial Documents
Evidence of Quid Pro Quo with Guerrilla, Paramilitary Groups
Contradicts 2007 Plea Deal
Colombian Military
Officials Encouraged, Facilitated Company's Payments to Death
Squads
More than 5,500 Pages of Chiquita Records Published Online by
National Security Archive
Bogotá, Colombia, April 7, 2011 - Confidential internal
memos from Chiquita Brands International reveal that the banana
giant benefited from its payments to Colombian paramilitary and
guerrilla groups, contradicting the company's 2007 plea agreement
with U.S. prosecutors, which claimed that the company had never
received "any actual security services or actual security equipment
in exchange for the payments." Chiquita had characterized the
payments as "extortion."
These documents are among thousands that Chiquita turned over to
the U.S. Justice Department as part of a sentencing deal in which
the company admitted to years of illegal payments to the
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)--a State
Department-designated foreign terrorist organization--and agreed to
pay a $25 million fine.
The Archive has obtained more than 5,500 pages of Chiquita's
internal documents from the Justice Department under the Freedom of
Information Act and is publishing the entire set online today. Key
documents from the Chiquita Papers are included in the
recently-published document collection, Colombia and the United
States: Political Violence, Narcotics, and Human Rights, 1948-2010,
now available as part of the Digital National Security Archive from
ProQuest.
The documents provide evidence of mutually-beneficial
"transactions" between Chiquita's Colombian subsidiaries and
several illegal armed groups in Colombia and shed light on more
than a decade of security-related payments to guerrillas,
paramilitaries, Colombian security forces, and government-sponsored
Convivir militia groups. The collection also details the company's
efforts to conceal the so-called "sensitive payments" in the
expense accounts of company managers and through other accounting
tricks.
New evidence indicating that Chiquita benefited from the illicit
payments may increase the company's exposure to lawsuits
representing victims of Colombia's illegal armed groups. The
collection is the result of an Archive collaboration with George
Washington University Law School's International Human Rights and
Public Justice Advocacy Clinics and has been used in support of a
civil suit brought against Chiquita led by Earth Rights
International on behalf of hundreds of Colombian victims of
paramilitary violence.
The Chiquita Papers also highlight the role of the Colombian
military in pressuring the company to finance the AUC through the
Convivir groups and in facilitating the illegal payments. The
documents also provide evidence of the company's payments to
Colombian politicians, including former president Álvaro
Uribe, who received a substantial donation during his run for
governor of Antioquia.
"These extraordinary records are the most detailed account to date
of the true cost of doing business in Colombia," said Michael
Evans, director of the National Security Archive's Colombia
documentation project.
"Chiquita's apparent quid pro quo with guerrillas and
paramilitaries responsible for countless killings belies the
company's 2007 plea deal with the Justice Department. What we still
don't know is why U.S. prosecutors overlooked what appears to be
clear evidence that Chiquita benefited from these
transactions."
04/07/2011
Fredsakademiets musikudstilling
på Hvidovre Hovedbibliotek. 
Kl 11: Åbning af udstillingen og koncert ved den kendte
folkemusiker Fin Alfred Larsen, der synger sange om soldater
i krig og fred.
Litteratur: Nyd freden i Hvidovre. I: Arbejderen, 04/08/2011.
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