the best yes of the ideas of man african is a the a 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 for 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 pay $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 chiquita bank rolled from 1997 to 2004. the company still faces hundreds of similar lawsuits and courts across america. but this is the 1st one that has resulted in the jury verdict. the company said that it would appeal, it did not say, however,

how it would could reconcile the fact that the united self defense forces of columbia, which the state department list as a foreign terrorist group educated brands entered into an agreement whereby the company transferred $1700000.00 to the terrorist john curiosity. welcome to the whistle blowers the . 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 the key to is the modern innovation of a notorious predecessor, known as the united fruit company. the united front company won 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 solidified the company's 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 powerhouse in the region. as well as the largest employer and land owner. a series of strikes through the 19 seventy's and 19 eighties, weekend and script 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's 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 joining 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 series or 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, in the master 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 terrorist group. and why was it found liable in these depths? 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 jackie. this 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 to prove and 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, the 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 a you see they pair the right when counting paramilitary to a, 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 educated 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 plaintiffs 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 believe that this is the 1st us based multinational 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, whether for a range of other plaintiffs behind a possible plaintiff's behind them, there could be as many as 5000 or more victims in this pretty 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. so that's one thing. the only thing is, but i think it's very important is that this was covered by all the business of 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 chaquita claimed 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? shaquita is admitted that it paid $1700000.00 to these death squads. the death squads and wantonly chilled 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. so 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 it the only benefits that the a you see receive from shakita. we, it is the, these are the funds that could be 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 is 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, been in a lot order call launches are small speed boats. and this, these, these, these drugs were sent from the port. we don't know how many, but we do know there are 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 into 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 then this the bill 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 one, 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 the door and you look at delmonte, where at least there's no evidence that they did anything like this, which a key to did 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 chaquita did instead? is it changed? it actually moved in deeper and deeper and deeper. thank you, terry. so 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 in latin america. how can a private company accumulate so much power and authority that is can over pro governments stay to the. 2 stuff for the future. so i'm a shift towards opportunity especially should deal with the machine called the should the vehicle, is it the economic model? have us the kinds of what it means, different experiments you if it doesn't fix it, tested by the next 2 weeks. ok. even though it was a new month, so i was unable to deal with the company anthem,

drug which comes up developing bio chemical weapons inside of the guns. go to wants to use the solution, you know way some cheaper to use the white glove service cost. but he's because of his center space right from this day one been even begun mentioned was being drafted in early 19. the united states was very clear that they could not take any action. that's what affected economy that did not allow climate negotiations to make progress. and did not take strong targets based on that fashion based on that as part of the emissions for the kids that i can do as the camp and what the responsibility on

china and india and other developing countries. the the i wanted to come here since i was 121 my grandfather told me that his mom came from russia that we were, i was part russian. i didn't plan on staying this long. i was gonna look around. i was gonna see if it was for me, but then i came and then i was like, i don't remember when i go home. i've never been happier in life than i am here in most of the i've only lived here a few months, but i wanted to tell you what fascinates me about russia and share the stories of other foreigners who lived here like jay who worked as a chef and now raises goats and makes cheese in the countryside series, like chad who has been granted political asylum because he's being persecuted by

the f. b. i. us, embassies. and for countries that come after me it's, it's wild like an american family that recently moved to russia with 6 children. i've never felt safe or land tire life then living here the welcome back to the whistle blowers. i'm john to reaku. we're speaking with professor terry carl. she's the gilford professor of latin american studies and professor of political science emeritus 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 and re k 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, chiquita and it's 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 in the 1950s, and they even overthrew governments. 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 carpet treatment 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 thought 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 is expanding 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. now the 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 they knew, 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 an ethical 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, remember, there's no internet, there's no communication, nobody knows what's going on in guatemala. 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 round 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 risk. this trial is payments to the a you see the cost of doing business. that's what shaquita 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 kid is being asked to consider the lives of its own workers in another country it's 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

it in their 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 the 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 would charge $25000000.00 by the doj, 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 gonna 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 opened up more and more cases against a key to so their ultimate losses could be in the billions is agriculture. and our company is like to keep it 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 the 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 costa rica 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 falls 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. and that's what our cell phones are run by. this is a very, very valuable energy, a battery,

pre 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, the novelist, j. k. rowling, the creator of harry, the virginia is carried out as a good pace in various fields. both of these, the post on the level of change, the exit industries and the agencies, including the foreign ministry, parliament's and regional forties swamps because of political parties and does that make organizations, business circles and i think tags, book, and educational institutions. so it's a very rich range of engagement. so we've talked about the need to,

to concentrate on increasing windshield trade, which has seen a dip in the last 2 years. such as here will have been simply then is the 1st meeting of the commission on scientific technical council cooperation. this event, my waiver had meetings in the way of somebody and i will get the most common cause i am working groups on science, technology, and taurus professional for this. next to me, i'm sort of working groups are very useful to the amount of to provide things, holiday preparations for b and re meetings. so things are going mental commissions of we are continuing to strengthen our treaty base and may signed an additional agreement on double taxation which will suit in order to force i'm not sure. and this will certainly help our investment corporation. and we also have

a couple dozen dropped into governmental and into departmental agreements that the pipeline you agree to accelerate work on those malaysian is interested in expanding corporation, the field of education. so there are over $700.00 relation students studying attraction diversity is currently mostly the field of medicine, but also in other fields universities have a direct size. it's last year of as soon as the documents were assigned between the russian in relation to universities, including the launch of joint educational programs, academic ability, and exchange programs and projects to teach instruction in relation languages. we've exchanged this with the there still has all the cooperation between the

diplomatic academy brush and the for inflections astute under the mid a foreign ministry of melisha. and so these, this would include exchanging experience with are in the training of diplomats and provided internship opportunities for, for students. we've discussed our expanding our corporation on international platforms, including asking we've taken part in the events here, allow us so that we have meetings with our public countries and then this part of attend. we also had a minute serial meetings as part of the eastern nation summit and b as in regional security form.