US companies accused of funding militias

Surprise, Surprise!

Are you not shocked beyond belief?

I know we are.... LOL


Print Story: US companies accused of funding militias on Yahoo! News:

The United States shares the blame for Colombia's suffering, a top Democrat said Thursday at a congressional hearing focusing on allegations that U.S. companies funded illegal right-wing militias. The deaths of union activists in the Andean nation have been linked to the militias.

'We are complicit in the devastation of that society,' said Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass. 'So it is a moral imperative that requires us to help Colombia end that cycle of violence'

Delahunt, who chairs the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, spoke during a hearing in which Chiquita Brands International Inc. and the Alabama coal company Drummond Co. Inc. were singled out as having close ties to Colombia's paramilitaries.

Chiquita has acknowledged having paid paramilitaries $1.7 million in protection money over six years. The company, which sold its operations in Colombia three years ago, was fined $25 million by the Justice Department this year for making the payments from 1997-2004.