Never Pay

There is nothing more dangerous than give in to extorsionists. A Florida judge gave green light to a lawsuit against Chiquita the banana company, for having paid extorsion money to local AUC security contractors. I have consulted in Uraba, Colombia, and lectured in Chiquita's former offices. Without AUC protection, dozens of Chiquita's employees would have been killed by the Communist rebels.

By 2004 Chiquita had given away for nothing all its operations in Colombia, and even agreed to pay 25 million dollars extorsion money to the United States government. Chiquita believed its poisonous Colombian chapter had been closed. But once you pay, they will never let you alone but you will be sucked dry. By the US Government, in this case.

Chiquita aka United Fruit Company has had such bad press that its case is hopeless. Chiquita is so disconnected from reality that allowed itself to be painted as the archetype of rain-forest killing Corporation, the one that killed the Tree of Life on Pandora. The best escape for Chiquita would have been to arrange in 1994 to be expropiated and nationalized by the Colombian government. The Colombian Army should have liberated the banana fields. The British could give them advice how to do it, they arranged Dictator Juan Peron to nationalize their old railway system to the delirious applause of the Argentine people, and in addition they got paid (overpaid in fact) in hard currency. You need imagination and courage for operations like that, which desperate British had in abundance and also Chiquita when all it had was a little Pirate Ship in the Caribbean, but now they got rich and wanted to be Good Global Citizens. I'm sure they never take a deep breath so they cannot be accused of emitting polluting CO2 gas. They gave up farting (methane !!!) long ago.