United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia

Case Study: Chiquita in Colombia: Funding Paramilitary Groups to Protect Business and Employees Presented by: Valerie Reese Case Summary: United Fruit Company, a company that grows bananas in Central America and exports them to North America and Europe, became Chiquita Brands International in 1984 through a series of mergers and control changes (Maurer, 2012, p. 485). Chiquita Brands relocated its headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio, and began to expand its holdings

Case Report: Blood Bananas: Chiquita in Colombia BUSA 4980 Chiquita Brands international was founded in 1899 after the merger of United Fruit Company and the Boston Fruit Company. As bananas be came more of a staple in every home so do Chiquita Bananas. Bananas are know to mainly grown in tropical places like Central America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Chiquita decided to have operations out of Colombia. During this time there was turmoil in Colombia and different terror groups form “against

Abstract: Chiquita Brands International and its leaders learned a very hard lesson about paying off terrorist groups to protect their employees. Over the past 25 years, no place has been more perilous for companies than Colombia, a country that is finally beginning to emerge from the effects its Colombian banana subsidiaries had made protection payments to terrorist groups from 1997 through 2004. The Justice Department began an investigation, focusing on the role and conduct of Chiquita and some

After the U.S. Justice Department determined that Chiquita’s payments were illegal and must be stopped, Chiquita pleaded guilty to one criminal charge of engaging with a terrorist organization and received a $25 million fine. Public admission and a guilty plea make the evidence clear that Chiquita knew they were acting irresponsibly and unethically. After the lawsuits were filed, Chiquita maintained it was a victim of extortion and simply trying to protect its employees. While Chiquita didn’t kill

had been accelerated when criminal groups tried to cash in on the obsession for cocaine in the United States by importing coca leaf from Bolivia and Peru into cocaine hydrochloride (HCL) then trafficking it to the United States. (InSight Crime, n.d.). During the time of Pablo Escobar in 1980’s the first major cocaine cartels emerged in Medellin cartel and Cali cartel in southwest. (PBS.org, n.d.). Colombia became one of the sophisticated drug trafficking organization and most violent country in globe

The United States and Colombia have had a long standing relationship through the course of history. There have been trade agreements signed by the two parties; also negotiations have taken part in regard to development strategies on the part of the US to promote the rule of Democracy and it’s institutions in Colombia, where illegal armed forces sought to control many aspects of the country’s development. Aside from trade agreements the United States and Columbia have also had agreements related to

plague that kills more people than AIDS or any other known epidemic” (Carroll). Brazil and Colombia are two countries that have been shaped by gang violence; both are gripped by some of the largest, most violent, and institutionalized gangs in the world. In Donna Goldstein’s ethnography of life in a Brazilian shantytown, Laughter Out of Place, the power and prevalence of gang violence is apparent. In Colombia, gangs flourish nationwide and have direct consequences on the country’s economic, political

The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) is the world’s largest group (approximately 12,000) among the Colombian rebels, and is one of the world’s richest guerrilla forces. The FARC’s roots can be tracked back to the rebel guerrilla bands of La Violencia- the civil war between the Liberal and Conservative parties from 1948 until 1958. In the 60’s the FARC had had enough of the liberal party’s leadership and turned to communism. This movement was led by a senior leader in one of the

The word terrorism has different interpretations depending on the specific threats that the governments face and the problems that they want to combat. In some historical periods terrorism has had a positive image, associated with democratization, self-determination, and struggle against oppression, while in others it has had an eminently negative image related to indiscriminate violence against the population and the threat against national and international systems. In these modern times terrorism

cartels, Colombia has not had a time of peace since they became independent nearly 200 years ago. None of these conflicts have resolved peacefully. They were usually caused by difference in culture or beliefs. Corruption within their own government has left Colombia without legitimate authority; the citizens have nobody to trust, be helped by, or be defended by. Colombia has the potential to institute a stable and effective government, but it has some major complications holding it back. Colombia has