Top Banana

In a strike against terrorist sympathizers, compassion and moral decency a United States District judge recently sentenced Lynn Stewart, a seventy-year-old diabetic, to 10 years in prison for 'willingly abusing her position as a criminal defense lawyer' by helping former CIA asset, Omar Abdel Rahman pass messages from prison. This exceptional meting out of justice was at the judge's discretion.

Two years later, in 2007, in a D.C. Federal Court, Chiquita, the international fruit corporation, admitted to funding a Colombian terrorist group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - AUC), a right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious civilian massacres. For willingly supporting terrorist death squads Chiquita was ordered to cough up $25 million dollars and warned to be a bit more careful.

No charges were filed against the 10 Chiquita bosses involved in the payoffs. Nor were criminal charges pursued against chief executive, Cyrus Freidheim, (now boss of the Sun-Times Media Group), or former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Roderick Hills, (member of the Chiquita board and married to Carla Hills, former US trade representative under George H.W. Bush; no doubt also at the discretion of the Justice Dept serving the then President, George W. Bush.

Chiquita senior vice president and general counsel James Thompson sounded satisfied: "the Justice Department made "the correct decision, which reflected the [company's] good-faith efforts." To paraphrase-- "we support this War on Terror" thing but business is business.

100 Years of Servitude

There is a reason Central America and Columbia are still impoverished Banana Republics: Chiquita, formerly the United Brands, and heir to the almighty United Fruit. The recent coup in Honduras was merely the latest example of what a popular president can expect if he dares defend his country's workers. For the poor Hondurans the dream of democracy has meant more of the same.

Nothing remains of Tacamiche, Honduras but a few concrete foundations. No one lives here any more but lizards and crows.

"After six decades as a community among Chiquita's banana fields, the village was plowed under by Honduran soldiers. Chiquita [had] tried to enforce its court eviction of the village several times, but villagers refused to leave. The military came into the village in February 1996 with tear gas, bulldozers and rifles. In a statement issued through its attorneys, Chiquita stated that the February eviction "took place peacefully and no one was hurt." Tacamiche villagers dispute that claim. Photographs of the event show soldiers with assault rifles forcibly removing women and children as bulldozers destroy the village."-- that excerpt is from a series expose on Chiquita written for the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1998 by Mike Gallagher & Cameron McWhirter.

Although the facts the reporters described have not been refuted they were nevertheless forced to resign and the Enquirer issued Chiquita an apology for their questionable investigative "methods". As Fox News could have told the Enquirer when it's legal to lie in Corporate America telling the truth just aint worth the trouble. Which is why there' s been barely a peep in the mainstream news that there's some serious goings on down in Panama. It seems the farmers are tired of being forced to sell their bananas to Chiquita at a loss and the government knowing the company's biggest letters spell CIA is locked in a panic.

On July 2, 4500 mostly indigenous workers belonging to the powerful Banana workers union (Sitribana) began a strike at the Bocas Fruit Company in the province of Bocas del Toro.Workers from nearby farms quickly joined the strike. Other workers set up road blockades and occupied the airport. In response, the government mobilised 1500 police to brutally repress protesters.The deadly repression left at least 11 people dead and more than 200 injured.

It's All Europe's Fault

What those Central Americans don't understand is that the end of the Cold War was supposed to make Chiquita the Top Banana in Europe. They somehow forgot that Europe has its own servile, (sorry), client states that grow bananas.

Times have changed since the days when United Fruit (or the Octopus, "El Pulpo", as they call it in Latin America), could count on the CIA to keep profits flowing. And while Uncle Sam is quite happy to slap down Honduras it's not about to try and punch out Germany. Desperate to save its bottom line after its over-investment Chiquita spent millions bribing, (sorry), lobbying its buddies in Washington, finally winning sanctions against the EU for its import quotas.

So the natives may get restless and take up arms, a top banana simply does what it has to to save its skin.

Honduras: This travesty shall not stand(updated... unless we say so)

"The Honduran military is effectively a subsidiary of the United States government. Honduras, as a whole, if any Latin American country is fully owned by the United States, it’s Honduras. Its economy is wholly based on trade, foreign aid and remittances. So if the U.S. is opposed to this coup going forward, it won’t go forward. Zelaya will return..." Greg Grandin, professor of History, NYU.

The imperial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been a enormous blessing for Latin America. With the United States bogged down struggling for control of Middle East and Central Asian oil our neighbors to the south have finally had the breathing room to begin to resuscitate their strangled democracies.

Honduras' President Zelaya may have overplayed his hand by underestimating the elite's complete contempt for the Honduran people.

A little background:
Honduras is distinguished from it's neighbors by the totality of the banana companies' control. In contrast to El Salvedor, Costa Rica,and Guatemala, no native groups or companies rose to make fortunes in coffee exports. Instead, the U.S. companies controlled the government, financing political parties which conspired against each other. The U.S. also began training a Honduran army and air force which were commanded by the U.S. officers and seven primarily to protect the interests of the banana companies.

The banana companies cultivated only about one-third of their lands,meaning that mich of the best land lay idle. In addition, corrupt officials frequently would appropriate large tracts of land, either keeping it for themselves or selling it to foreign companies. One example occurred in Trujillo, where a local military commander, Col. Gustavo Alvarez, expropriated 2,000 hectares of land belonging to the Garifuna and distributed them amongst wealthy landowners over the Garifunas' protests.

But the genie is out of bottle. At least in Latin America, the days of the Anglo/American imperialist are clearly numbered. It will be a treat to watch our "neocon advocates for freedom and democracy" try to spin this desperate strike against the Honduran people.

So far it seems the Dems are not much better...
While Obama and Clinton have called for a restoration of the constitutional order, they have not yet called for Zelaya to be returned to office. Some in Washington are actually calling for negotiations with the coup plotters to "restore constitutional order" - no doubt hoping to stall by keeping Zelaya out of office (and away from his people) until the November elections.

A report on the coup from Al Jazeera