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The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of Shell. The case centers on the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute that has been increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad.
Other cases pending in U.S. courts seek to hold accountable Chiquita Brands International for its relationship with paramilitary groups in Colombia; Exxon and Chevron for abuses in Indonesia and Nigeria, respectively, and several companies for their role in apartheid in South Africa.
Supreme Court will weigh corporate liability for alleged abuses overseas - The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts-law/supreme-court-will-weigh-corporate-liability-for-alleged-abuses-overseas/2011/10/17/gIQAxDGSrL_story.html - broken link)
Chiquita came out and admitted it had ties with FARC.
Supreme Court will weigh corporate liability for alleged abuses overseas - The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts-law/supreme-court-will-weigh-corporate-liability-for-alleged-abuses-overseas/2011/10/17/gIQAxDGSrL_story.html - broken link)
Chiquita came out and admitted it had ties with FARC.
Yeah? No kidding. A few years ago, the Cincinnasti Enquirer ran a story on that. It seems someone on the inside gave a reporter the access codes for voice-mails, so the reporter was downloading all sorts of juicy stuff.
Then of course, the Lindner Family whined and so the Enquirer retracted the entire story and the reporter got convicted of federal crimes and sent away.
Cancelled my subscription and never read the Enquirer since.
Quote:
Retraction Doesn't Halt Probe Of Chiquita U.S., Honduras Look Into Published Allegations
July 18, 1998|By Douglas Frantz, New York Times News Service
CINCINNATI — Overlooked in the furor that followed The Cincinnati Enquirer's apology last month for a stinging series accusing Chiquita Brands International of engaging in corruption were the extraordinary allegations at the heart of the series: the questionable business practices of a major corporation with broad influence in the U.S. and across Latin America.
Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International Inc. avoided antitrust fines by the European Union after blowing the whistle on banana price fixing.Firma Leon Van Parys NV’s Pacific Fruit unit was fined $12.3 million for fixing banana prices in an antitrust case brought to the European Union’s attention by Chiquita.
Chiquita paid rebel groupsCompany told feds of Colombia payoffs
By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Chiquita Brands International Inc. said Monday the Justice Department is investigating payments the company made to Colombian terrorist groups in response to threats against its workers.
Cincinnati-based Chiquita, the world's largest banana company, said it voluntarily informed the Justice Department in April 2003 that it made the payments over an undisclosed period of time. [Emphasis Mine]
The articles, written by Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter, charged the company with mistreating the workers on its Central American plantations, polluting the environment, allowing cocaine to be brought to America on its ships, bribing foreign officials, evading foreign nations' laws on land ownership, forcibly preventing its workers from unionizing, and a host of other misdeeds. Chiquita denied all of the allegations, suing after it was revealed that one of the newspaper's reporters had hacked into Chiquita's voice-mail system.
This is why I hate Pukipedia. There was no "hacking."
A Chiquita employee with authorization to voice-mail codes and passwords and authorization to distribute them, gave them to Gallagher and McWhirter. The two reporters then called the Chiquita main-line and legally accessed the information. No "hacking" was involved.
I've had a lot of dealings with the ass-wipe Lindner Family. They'd be ideal targets in a revolution.
Yeah? No kidding. A few years ago, the Cincinnasti Enquirer ran a story on that. It seems someone on the inside gave a reporter the access codes for voice-mails, so the reporter was downloading all sorts of juicy stuff.
Then of course, the Lindner Family whined and so the Enquirer retracted the entire story and the reporter got convicted of federal crimes and sent away.
Cancelled my subscription and never read the Enquirer since.
This is why I hate Pukipedia. There was no "hacking."
A Chiquita employee with authorization to voice-mail codes and passwords and authorization to distribute them, gave them to Gallagher and McWhirter. The two reporters then called the Chiquita main-line and legally accessed the information. No "hacking" was involved.
I've had a lot of dealings with the ass-wipe Lindner Family. They'd be ideal targets in a revolution.
I probably would've gone a little more in depth but I was on lunch...
"Did the paramilitaries state, specifically to you, that if you didn't make the payments, your people would be killed?" Kroft asks.
"There was a very, very strong signal that if the company would not make payments, that things would happen. And since they had already killed at least 50 people, employees of the company, it was clear to everyone there that these guys meant business," Aguirre says.
Chiquita only had a couple of options and none of them were particularly good. It could refuse to pay the paramilitaries and run the risk that its employees could be killed or kidnapped, it could pack up and leave the country all together and abandon its most profitable enterprise, or it could stay and pay protection, and in the process, help finance the atrocities that were being committed all across the countryside.
"These were extortion payments," Aguirre says. "Either you pay or your people get killed."
"And you decided to pay," Kroft remarks.
"And the company decided to pay, absolutely," Aguirre says.
United Fruit Company is the textbook case of American foreign policy's primary goal being protecting businesses. Can't wait for the inevitable 5-4 decision in Chiquita's favor.
United Fruit Company is the textbook case of American foreign policy's primary goal being protecting businesses. Can't wait for the inevitable 5-4 decision in Chiquita's favor.
Quote:
During Coolidge's term in office, the United States continued to maintain a strong presence and assert influence in Latin America. Direct investments, which rose from $1.26 billion in 1920 to $3.52 billion in 1928, inextricably tied the economies of those countries to America. For example, the United Fruit and Standard Fruit companies controlled most of the revenue of Honduras, and U.S. firms dominated Venezuelan oil production. Control of the Panama Canal and a policy of using troops, when necessary, to safeguard U.S. interests also worked to give the United States the upper hand in the region. In a direct show of influence, U.S. troops trained and maintained a pro-American National Guard in the Dominican Republic and occupied Nicaragua and Haiti with a peacekeeping force of U.S. soldiers throughout the decade. Americans also controlled Cuban politics and the Cuban economy, and the United States nearly came to blows with Mexico over the ownership of Mexican oil fields by American companies.
(My Merchant Marine Uncle worked the UF boats in the 30's)
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Primer to your statement...
