President Uribe oversaw payments by Chiquita to AUC & FARC rebel groups
Chiquita Brands International, famous for its bananas, has agreed to pay $25 million in fines for employing paramilitary groups to protect its farms in Colombia, according to a CNN report.
The corporation is also suspected of using hired military forces to exterminate workers who caused problems or had political beliefs that were not in the best interests of the company, says Karl Penhall on CNN's American Morning.
"This right-wing death squad that Chiquita Brands says it financed through its Colombian subsidiary was responsible not for tens or hundreds of deaths, but in fact for thousands of deaths," Penhall reports.
CNN video available at Raw Story here: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Chiquita_Bananas_Mercenaries_kill_1000_in_0315.html