The senior Justice Department officials confirmed that they had launched a probe of Drummond at least several years ago, and that they had looked at other U.S. firms as well. "We were trying to look into any allegation there was of any company doing what Chiquita was doing," one said of the Drummond allegations. "I can't say we pursued every one of them."
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U.S. accused of bending rules on Colombian terror
Several lawmakers say multinationals that aid violent groups in return for protection are not being prosecuted.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday July 25, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
Colombian terror groups: An article in Sunday's Section A about American companies making payments to Colombian terror groups said a group of congressmen asked the Justice Department in 2003 to investigate allegations against two Coca-Cola bottling companies in Colombia that had been accused in lawsuits of collaborating with paramilitaries. The companies were dismissed from the suits in 2006.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday August 01, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 4 inches; 81 words Type of Material: Correction
Colombian terror groups: A correction on a July 22 Section A article about American companies allegedly making payments to Colombian terror groups referred incorrectly to lawsuits accusing two independent Coca-Cola bottling companies of collaborating with paramilitaries. The correction, published on July 25, said the bottling companies were dismissed from the lawsuits. In fact, the single lawsuit itself was dismissed on procedural grounds, but the dismissal is on appeal and the companies remain defendants in the case, as the article originally said.
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Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security, said he could not discuss ongoing federal actions.
The lawmakers' concerns intensified after Chiquita reached a plea agreement with the Justice Department in March, in which it admitted having paid the AUC at least $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004, and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, before that. Chiquita said it did so to protect its workers, contending that the guerrilla and paramilitary groups attacked corporations that refused.
Colombia's chief prosecutor, Mario Iguaran, has accused Chiquita and the AUC of cultivating "a criminal relationship" based on "money and arms and, in exchange, the bloody pacification of Uraba," the region where the Cincinnati-based firm's banana plantations were based until it sold them in 2004.
In May, six congressmen wrote a follow-up letter to Gonzales, asking whether the Justice Department had investigated their "grave concerns" that other companies, particularly Drummond, might be engaging in similar activity. The lawmakers said that Iguaran had launched a criminal investigation of Drummond and that though the allegations were unproved, they were "sufficiently credible" for the Justice Department to launch criminal proceedings of its own.
"If no such probe has begun, we strongly urge that one be started immediately," wrote Reps. Delahunt, Tom Lantos (D-Burlingame), Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), George Miller (D-Martinez), Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) and Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.).
No response
The Justice Department has not responded to that letter, the lawmakers say.
"In the wake of 9/11, it is shocking to me that allegations of payments to terrorist groups have not been aggressively investigated and prosecuted by the Justice Department," Engel said at a June 28 congressional hearing on the issue, the first of what the lawmakers have pledged will be many.
"I can only imagine the force and speed with which the entire prosecutorial force of the United States government would come down on a company alleged to have assisted Al Qaeda or Hezbollah," Engel added.
