A South Florida jury just found Chiquita Brands liable for killings by right-wing paramilitary death squads that the the company financed in their banana plantations. Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company (UFC), has a long history of deadly repression against workers. The New Orleans-based multinational has long monopolized land and markets and controlled governments throughout Latin America. UFC was implicated in massacres in Colombia, the overthrow of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbens of Guatemala, and propped up many so-called “banana…
Tag: Colombia
Election of activist presidential team to combat structural violence in Colombia
Colombia just elected Gustavo Petro as the country’s first leftist president and environmental activist Francia Márquez Mina as the country’s first Black vice president. They have promised social and environmental justice and peace. Their proposed platform includes universal health care, public education and banking, and rejecting proposals to expand fracking and mining in favor of investing in clean energy, and land reform. And they want the 4,000 richest Colombians – and richest companies – to pay taxes as the rest…