Former Colombian paramilitary boss Freddy Rendon, alias "The German," who is serving time in jail, confirmed on Friday that extreme-right groups received funds from US banana producer Chiquita Brands.
The payments were meted out according to which group -- rightist or leftist -- was in control of a region at the time during Colombia's ongoing four decades of civil conflict.
From FARC to AUC
"The multinational company previously funded FARC [the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia], when FARC had the hegemony in the Uraba region so that they did their job," Rendon said.
"When the [paramilitary] self-defense groups arrived they funded them too," Rendon said.
Last month, before a court in Washington, Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty of having made payments to paramilitaries to obtain protection for its employees in Colombia.
The firm is paying a US$25 million fine for having hired a group that is considered a "terrorist" organization.
Chiquita was found to have secretly paid US$1.7 million to the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1997 and February 2004, through its subsidiary in Colombia.
Rendon, who was sentenced to jail for his role as a paramilitary commander, was speaking to the press from the high-security Itagui prison that holds 43 paramilitary bosses.
The media had been summoned amid accusations that the commanders enjoyed luxury in the jail.
Rendon said he anticipated that the Chiquita case "is going to end with a fine in the United States and in Colombia it is news today and will be forgotten tomorrow."
Modus operandi
The former paramilitary leader explained that payments made by the multinationals were received by a corporation, which in turn handed them over to the AUC.
"It is no secret to anyone that banana businessmen in Uraba ... paid those resources through that corporation for security and all that," Rendon said.
"We can probably end up extradited [to the US], the Chiquita guys probably not," he said.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
RSS