Five brave women take on the system!

About two weeks ago, I came across one of those little blurbs in The Economist about five women whose husbands were killed by FARC guerillas in Colombia and are now suing Chiquita Brands Int. (you know, of banana fame) for indirectly funding the guerillas by providing them money to look after their banana plantations.

Basically, here’s the story, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia/ Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia)is a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist revolution organization and they are responsible for political chaos in Colombia because of their violent guerilla tactics that include kidnappings and murders. Chiquita Brand International, fearful of a loss of business has sided with FARC and has been paying them off to protect their lucrative banana plantations. Check out the very sketchy Washington Post article here that talks about how Chiquita contacted the United States Justice Department asking them for advice on how to pull-out of this hostile situation, and how the Justice Department essentially turned a blind eye. This quote really captures the central issue here:

What transpired at the Justice Department meeting is now a central issue in a criminal probe. According to these sources' account, the Bush administration was pulled in competing directions, perhaps because its desire to avoid undermining a newly elected, friendly Colombian government conflicted with its frequent public assertions that supporting a terrorist group anywhere constitutes a criminal offense and a foreign policy mistake.

Fast forward to 2008 and five amazingly brave women are now suing because their husbands were kidnapped and murdered by the FARC guerilla group. At the time when both right-wing and left-wing guerilla groups are accused of kidnapping and murdering countless people, Chiquita was paying them to protect their lucrative banana plantations. Now, the five widows of missionary husbands are suing the company for unspecified damages and taking on a huge North American company for aiding and abetting the senseless deaths of their husbands and for the kind of business that profits off of violence. It is a gargantuan task and hopefully, with a successful outcome, this case, led by very strong women, will send a message of warning to other companies that engage in business overseas and are involved in the same sort of gross violations of basic human rights (Coke Inc. ahem).