Am I BANANAS? Banana company Chiquita Brands Intl PAID TERRORISTS!?

Question

FULL ARTICLE LINK:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031500354.html
Chiquita brands International said Wednesday it has agreed to a $25 million fine after admitting it paid terrorists for protection in a volatile farming region of Colombia.
BOYCOTT ALL CHIQUITA BRANDS! , The company grows, procures, markets, and distributes bananas and other fresh fruits and vegetables under the premium Chiquita brand. Its products are sold in some 70 countries worldwide. Bananas account for approximately 50% of Chiquita's total sales; other products include whole citrus fruits, melons, grapes, apples, and tomatoes, as well as fresh-cut items and processed fruit ingredients. Chiquita has completed its acquisition of the Fresh Express unit of Performance Food Group; Fresh Express is the leading seller of packaged salads in the US.
.(above from hoovers.com) I am wrting US DA Alberto Gonzales -- why was no one indicted under some federal law? I hope all will do the same

Answer 1

I see a lot of people excusing Chiquita for supporting terrorists because "that's the cost of business down there"... but I expect these same people would scream bloody murder if it were Haliburton and they were paying Al Qaida "protection money."

For some reason I just can't see Bush sending troops to Bogotá to "spread freedom." I guess banana farmers aren't as important to him as oil fields.

Answer 2

They were prosecuted, thus the fine. They paid the money to protect their employees and their land. That is the way things are done down there and every company has done it at one time or another. The company officials approached the Justice Department and told them they had been making the payments. Justice never even investigated them. It looks to me like Chiquita is as much a victim as a criminal here. I would not boycott them for this reason. One more thing, these "terrorist groups" are not attacking the US. They are involved in a civil war in Columbia. Although they do sell drugs to the US to finance their operations.

Answer 3

Just because they paid protection money doesn't mean they are guilty of anything. The bananas come from a region of the world where thugs rule and bandits wear badges. You either pay, or farms mysteriously burn down. That' s the system down there. It's easy to judge, when you can pretty much take for granted that up here, a cop or government official is on the straight and narrow. It's not so down there.

Answer 4

They paid money in a protection racket to protect their employees. Sheesh there are restaurants and stores and meat packers and you name it... all across our country paying protection money to the mob.
It's the same thing. When the Feds name the organized crime families as terrorists are you going to condemn the shopkeepers who paid them in fear for their lives and the lives of their employees? C'mon
Boycott hysteria but not Chiquita.

Answer 5

It is just the cost of doing business in the tropics. Bananas are the top selling produce item in the US, but can grow them only in a tiny little part of California.

Is that so different from paying income taxes? The IRS will take all your stuff if you don't.

Answer 6

The three answers I've read so far say it all-
let me ask you though-
what we do if all American companies, or half of them,
were destroyed by morals?
What would our economy do then?
This is the real world.