the, the jury in south florida has held that chiquita brands, the purveyors of chiquita bananas is liable for 8 killings carried out by a right wing paramilitary group that the company help to finance and afford open and growing region of columbia during that countries decades long, civil conflict, the jury ordered chiquita to page $38300000.00 to $16.00 family members of farmers and other civilians were killed in separate incidents by the so called united self defense forces of columbia, a right wing paramilitary group that shaquita bank rolled from 1997 to 2004. the companies still faces hundreds of similar lawsuits, of course, across america. but this is the 1st one that has resulted in a jury verdict. company said that it would appeal, it did not say, however, how it was could reconcile the fact that the united self defense forces of columbia,

which the state department list as a foreign terrorist roof educated brands entered into an agreement whereby the company transferred $1700000.00 to the terrorist. i'm john kerry. ok. welcome to the whistle blowers the . 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 tequita is the modern iteration of a notorious predecessor, known as the united fruit company, the united fruit company, once so, nearly 2000000 acres of land in guatemala, on doris costa rica, belize. and along the coast of columbia, it was the largest landowner and the largest employer in central america for more than 50 years. and it had the power and authority to overthrow governments. indeed, with members of its board of directors, that included president dwight eisenhower,

secretary of state john foster, dulles, and his brother, c. i, a director allen dollars. the united food company was able to overthrow the guatemalan government and replace it with a pro american military dictatorship. in 1954, that's a little fide to companies pre eminence over the central american economy and gave rise to the term, banana republic. although the united food company was a party to a number of mergers, acquisitions by outs and name changes over the years, it remained a power house in the region. as well as the largest employer and land owner. a series of strikes through the 19 seventies and 19 eighties weakened its grip on political power somewhat. but as it turned out, corporate leaders decided to continue operating on the dark side. executives admitted to the us justice department in 2007, that the company had financed a colombian terrorist group and it paid a $25000000.00 fine at the time. the saga is not over however. jury is across

america in the coming years. will him hear more and more testimony about chaquita, the damage that it's done to central american communities and families, and it's cooperation with and financing of terrorist groups. we're very happy to be joined today by professor terry carl. she's the guild read professor of latin american studies and professor emeritus of political science at stanford university, a tier to a bachelor's and master's degrees as well as her ph. d from stanford. doctor carl is the recipient of several of the most important academic prizes bestowed by the university and has served as the expert witness and other notorious human rights trials. for example, the murder of archbishop oscar romero now a catholic saint and the massacre of el, most of the day, the largest massacre in latin america in contemporary history. she received the real bronco prize from the brazilian president fernando enrique cardoso. in

recognition of her work in fostering academic relations between the united states and latin america. dr. karl, thank you so much for joining us. thank you for inviting me. before we get into the history of the united fruit company, i want to ask you about the most recent news about a jury finding shaquita liable for the depths of 8 colombians. can you explain this to us? why in the world, what a fruit company be involved with a terrorist group, let alone be financing that terrace group. and why was it found liable in these debts? well, i can't really answer why they made these decisions only they can answer this, but what we can see is that from their decision to re enter columbia in 1988, this is chiquita. as decision to re enter columbia in 1988 is the at the height of violence. in the banana producing regions from that decision flows,

everything they did, which ends up at the pain of a paramilitary of a right of an ultra right wing paramilitary founded in this region by the banana plantation owners. what had to be a prison in the trial were essentially 3 things. the 1st was that this parent military actually kills the plaintiffs or the plaintiff's families in killed torture or committed extra judicial killings of the families that were in this particular trial in florida. so we had to show that 1st of all they were responsible for the killings. the 2nd thing we had to show is that shaquita paid them in effect, paying for some of the bullets for guns, etc. and the violence that was occurring in this region. and the 3rd thing was that shaquita did this not as a normal business practice, but did,

and not as extortion did not do so under duress, but in fact made what the lawyers call the pact with the devil meeting the ac, they appear the right one kind of compare military to a break up to the, the trade unions to stop labor organizing in that area to force people off their land so that land could become cheap and could be bought by chiquita, in particular, etc. so that's what had to be proven in the trial. that is what was proven in the trial. and therefore chiquita was found responsible for the murders of the families of the plaintiffs. in this case, they were awarded almost $39000000.00 for this. and there are many other places to come. this federal court decision strikes me is a very important development in that there are hundreds of such cases pending in

federal district courts around the country. this is the 1st one that has gotten as far as a jury verdict. and even if the company appeals, which it says it will, the decision sets a precedent for the other cases. tell us how important this verdict was and what are people saying about it in columbia and elsewhere in latin america? this is a very important precedent. the lawyers believes that this is the 1st us based, multi national that's ever been held accountable in a trial for its actions in another country. so this has never happened before you. you might remember that shaquita is considered the very 1st multinational in some ways. so this is a very important precedent. what matters is that the, in this trial, the plaintiffs were called. bellwether plaintiffs. that means they were plaintiffs that actually showed were exemplars of other plaintiffs.

each plaintiff became a bell weather for a range of other plaintiffs behind a possible plaintiffs behind them. there could be as many as 5000 or more victims in this port killer story. so in that sense, it opens up of a whole can of worms richard key there because many, many more plaintiffs can come forward and charge them using the same evidence of this trial. and then their own particular evidence. that's one thing. the other thing is that i think is very important is that this was covered by all the business um business magazines like forbes and others. and it's like a warning shot across the bell of multi nationals on how to do business in other countries. this was really not a normal pissed business practice, not the quote. what took you to claim the cost of doing business in columbia. but

in fact, the disregard for the lives of the people who lived in the banana producing region . and in that sense, it's a very important, very important precedent. you touched on these other cases around the country, are they essentially the same? chiquita is admitted that it paid $1700000.00 to these death squads the deaths squads and wantonly killed people. and the company must take responsibility, is that essentially what these cases are? the cases are all similar to that they come from bell, whether the idea of bell weathers again. so each case may be somewhat different based on the individual characteristics of the extra additional killings who was killed, where they were killed, what piece of land was involved, etc. so they may be somewhat different. i do want to say that 1700000 doesn't sound like very much, but it was considered saved money to get the

a u. c. i started organized, incorporated into an umbrella organization. so it was very important early money is if i can put it that way. the other thing is, it's not that it's not the only money is involved, nor is this the only benefits that the you see receive from shakita we it is the, these are the funds, it took me proven. in other words, these are the checks, the actual payments that we, that the lawyers had evidence of. and that is, that's very important. the other thing that's very important is there's all kinds of income and benefits. for example, if it is clearly evident that chaquita is port had a private port was used by the a u. c to ship drugs. the ac was also

a drug trafficking, paramilitary to ship drugs, particularly the europe. um, from the port on banana boats on sometimes small banana walls order called launches or small speed boats. and this, these, these, these uh drugs were sent from the port. we don't know how many, but we do know there's some the other thing that was so important is that this port was used to bring in guns for drugs. in other words, the drug money went to, to europe and the guns came in and there's a very important case of this that was proven that we were able to use and this the bills of lading for chiquita said rubber ball. so in other words, it said that the, the, the, the, the shipments that were coming in were rubber balls. and when you opened up the boxes, they were actually a k 40 sevens and ammunition. tequita certainly is not the only fruit company in

latin america did other companies do what chiquita is accused of doing? did they associate themselves with paramilitary groups or other malign characters? no, and this is very important because this does all stem from a series of very bad chaquita decisions stemming from i would say the early ninety's on these decisions were particular to kita. if you look at goal and you look at delmonte, we at least there's no evidence that they did anything like this, which a candidate is instead of moving out of columbia and out of these very violent areas, which other banana other foreign banana companies did. so as not to get involved with the paramilitaries, what shaquita didn't ste. yeah. is it changed? it actually moved in deeper and deeper and deeper. thank you, terry. we're going to take a short break and when we come back, we're going to speak with professor terry carl about the history of the united food

company and latin america. how can a private company accumulate so much power and authority that it can overthrow governments stay to. 2 2 the water is a part of the blog post good. isn't the defense you of us and that in the word or is it something deeper, more complex might be present there? let's stop without pleases. let's go part of or take a fresh look around. there's a life kaleidoscopic, isn't just a shifted reality distortion by power to division with no real live indians.

fixtures, design to simplify will confuse really once a better wills, and is it just as a chosen few fractured images presented? it is, but can you see through their illusion going underground can a center for sponsor for as long as setting to store a committee of the the combined the percentage soon i made a return, you just have to read it just it would be due to the cbs, cbs criteria to that you seem to have lips still. most of the things do. it's a beautiful look into the you just put it into more real quick, keep the private and we'll put that on. we'll do the name and the doctor's office or any of us mostly to prose media, say doing this stuff the when you upside with me, at least the persistence. but some of those you, me to the 50 scare of the machine. if you put the blood pressure on the part of the

plane was used to born in the religious you believe the patrol, the key to, to you to be was most has to look at the a to the cost for the adults told them, you know, somebody comes to go the guy and then because he often doesn't, is buying a version of the charlotte. what does this progresses? you're not in the position with this much less the police agreement without leaving your state. it appears to just east virginia. it's a really going to the welcome back to the whistle blowers. i'm john kerry onto we're speaking with professor terry carl. she's the gilford, professor of latin american studies and professor of political science ameritas at stanford university. and is the recipient of several of the most important and prestigious academic prizes bestowed by the university. she also received the real bronco prize from brazilian president fernando enrique cardoso and recognition of

her work in fostering academic relations between the united states and latin america. thanks again for being with us professor. thank you for inviting me. chaquita and its predecessor company. the united fruit company have worked with repressive regimes and terrorist groups for a century. they were the most powerful force in all of latin america and the 1950s, and they even overthrew governments, or they were also credibly accused of using slave labor to work on the banana plantations. in guatemala, how's a company like this? still in business, it seems to me that if this were a government, it would have been overthrown decades ago. what do you think? now what's particularly important about what you key to did is it not only kept on digging itself in deeper and deeper in this region. but i mean, i dug a hole for a self and that it deeper and deeper. and by this, i mean, it moved from just buying the fruit,

the bananas from local producers to actually buying land, becoming the largest land owner in the area, changing its business practices so that it was deeply involved. not only in land holdings that were acquired because of the violence in large part. in other words, when it's so violent, people flee their lance and this is columbia at this time, was producing the greatest amount of out migration. i believe in the world. although i cannot verify that right now, but it had a huge out migration from this region because of the violence. in other words, the terror was forcing pest and saucer land by forcing peasants off their land. shaquita was able to move in, acquire this land off and acquire it through what they called legal carpentry. that's their language, not mine. legal carpentry meant that you acquired land in

a sketchy way. and then found ways to create a legal title to that land. so that also was happening and that was as it did that it got deeper and deeper into the region more and more involved with a right we've here military, the ac. to take us back to the early days of the united fruit company. it actually began as a railroad expanded into bananas only because one of the original investors $81.00 fought it was delicious and decided to plant them. and then the company really took off by transporting its own bananas on what was a monopoly railroad. it took decades for this to happen. why was there no regulation or oversight at the time? is it because it was an american company working in a region with certain governments? we'll go back to the time you're talking about, as i said, is the 1st of all to national in some ways. this is the time when the united states

has expanded beyond its borders for the very 1st time. so this is when you get the united states in latin america, in particular, it's the period of time, which is the biggest expansion of us interest abroad. another thing that is unusual about the banana companies is it actually creates the market for bananas and it innovative really figures out how to store bananas so that you can actually ship them to the united states. it creates its own market. it creates its own market with this very, very is considered one of the most innovative ad campaigns of all time. you know, it's, i'm chiquita, banana, and i wanna say. and, and that ad campaign is, is, is important in, in creating this kind of market. so, what you see is this expansion, the creation of the market, the moving of, uh,

bananas, from the banana present, previous egregious which are mostly jungle at this point. and the beginning of big mass occurs of banana workers. so if your listeners ever read a 100 years of solitude, my personal favorite book, and they'll see that garcia mark is with colombian, writer, it has a whole section of that book where he describes the 1928 massacre in columbia of banana workers. and the coloring up of that massacre by both to keep what it was made, the united fruit called united food interest and the colombian government. so this is an old practice. what's changed is the way of carrying out the and conducting the practice. as the world gets smaller, i'm interested in how from a legal perspective this was permitted to happen even in early to mid 20th century

america. the ethical problems just scream out the involvement in the united fruit company of the dallas brothers. and as another example, the brother of president eisenhower secretary is so obviously unethical and probably illegal. how was that allowed to happen? well, i think one real reason is racism, frankly, because i think said, put in a workers excuse me, were considered little brown people. and what is astonishing, not just then it's not so astonishing them in that the way we understand our history and are beginning to learn about us actions abroad in a better way, i think has changed. but back then, there is member, there's no internet, there's no communication, nobody knows what's going on and got them all. i don't really care what's going on in guatemala, and in guatemala, in particular, we're talking about my in indians. so there's a, a, an estimate racial issue here of little brown people that don't count. i think

what's more, astonishing, not the ethics and morality and legality in the postwar period. and remember, we, the, it's very easy to say these are common sharpened, and workers or communists. cold war, it's russia doing this. so therefore, you can to not pay any attention to, to their lives, the quality of their lives was happening. and what's more, astonishing to me is that it can happen in the eighty's and ninety's and all the way up, we're in the 2 thousands. remember, they're paying this list. this trial is payments to the a you see the cost of doing business. that's what 2 key to says in 2000. and that is what's astonishing because there is no regulation of this. there is no way the a u. c. a, excuse me, that cuba is being asked to consider the lives of its own workers in another

country. if that's dismissed as an issue, they know that these murders are going on. they know that the ac is killing these people. they know what is happening, you can see them there are mammals, but it is, as i said, consider the cost of doing business. now this is not legal because you have to have quote, normal business practices. it is not normal to hire desk squads to kill labor union leaders or force peasants off their land. and that's why they got caught. now the sanctions also think about it for a moment. the sanctions are probably worth the effort. they were charged $25000000.00 uh by the d o. j, which founded guilty of these of these actions in 2007. that's just not a lot of money, and it's not for a company like tequita. so you also could do a risk assessment and say, well, you know, even if we get caught,

we're not going to pay very much. that is what changed in this trial. because even though $38000000.00 is, is a relatively small amount for a multinational. what happened in this case because of the bell, whether plaintiff is it's opened up more and more cases against a key to so they're also meant losses could be in the billions is agriculture and, or companies like tequita as important in latin america today as they were in the past, no, i mean it does depend on the area. it depends, for example, it is very important in central america, and it is not surprising that central america produces so much out migration to, to, to mexico, the united states and other places because it is still looks a lot like what you're describing are i'm describing in 1954 in guatemala, and that's it still looks very much like that. it's still an agricultural ex

forwarding area. but if you really look at latin america, what counts now? much more is not the export of fruits and vegetables from places like coast to recur. and mexico. that's important. but what really were the big money is what i call the rants. that means excess profits. so the big money is in mining minerals and foss off all types of fossil fuels, oil. so what you see is the oil companies off and not all of them. but a company like accidental will follow some of the same practices and embed itself with paramilitaries. but you'll also see that the big issue in latin america today is really capturing mineral wealth and fighting mental and oil wealth and finding china for those resources. the key one now is lift the which

i think the country of sheila has half of the world's lithium. so what? well that's what our computers are run with. that's what our cell phones are run by . this is a very, very valuable energy, a battery prepaid minerals to use me for batteries. and we'll see all kinds of issues arise with this in the future. thank you, terry, for your insights into this case of the novel as j. k, rowling, the creator of harry potter once, wrote the quote, have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress, all of them realize that one day amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one that rises against them and strikes facts and quote that is, what has happened to chiquita and it looks like the best is yet to come. i'd like to think our guests professor, terry carl, for being with us today. and thank you to our viewers for joining us for another episode of the whistle blowers and john to reaku. please follow me on such deck at

john kerry uncle. we'll see you next time the. 2 2 2 2 the valley, her mother's storage. okay. the model girl that i got you, no problem. seeing that on the out of the thing documents the side of the drive that i showed my brother through. he was sudden too big of for a lo so now i never looked at searches as being the same. well, i guess i lost my list. that's the outcome of the chicago police. it'd be gang chicago is like to give you a photo that police. you really think your life as another crap thing. another i could have been a doctor, a nurse could have been the next president,

which i keep losing people out here. the light from this day one been even begun mentioned was being drafted in early 19 to the united states was very clear that the for not take any action definitely affected its economy. that they're not allowed on with negotiations to make progress. and they did not take long targets based on that fashion. and based on that as part of the emissions that they kept dragging their feet and camp and put the responsibility on china and india and other developing countries. the, [000:00:00;00]

the little girl is showing the latest on the line you more interested in this split change of changing the last 2 months. we need to look for the end of the was a shame, but i see it was a shame, but i see up with all my games with a see. yeah. this you should be able to move forward with your member said that was missing here on this quarter and present it to a tech request that i need to list the documents. but the good thing is that it does require, at least if you have a single click, that's because the steps of wish a successful professional my product. with that, i'm not more comfortable this one chest for tools if the stuff that's in

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