Obama, Holder, and paramilitaries.
Posted in Colombia, Imperial Crimes Against Humanity on Nov 21st, 2008
Death squads/paramilitaries are used by the upper elite of Central and South America to kill off, and torture leaders of social movements who struggle for justice, and against imperialist policies. A number of refugees from that region, who now live in the US, have either themselves been tortured by these squads, or have family members who may have been their targets. Having lived and worked in the barrios, this is something I know at a personal level.
The imperialist President-elect, Obama’s latest outrage has been the possible selection of Eric Holder as US Attorney General. Holder is the defense attorney of Chiquita Brands International (aka Chiquita bananas) in a case where Chiquita provided over $1.7 million to Colombian paramilitaries (read death squads) who targeted working families. The case was apparently resolved, with Holder negotiating little more than a slap on the wrist – not a single Chiquita official was indicted in this funding of terror groups.
In 2004, Holder helped negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita that involved the fruit company’s payment of “protection money” to the AUC, in direct violation of U.S. laws prohibiting this kind of transaction. In the agreement brokered by Holder, Chiquita officials pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a fine of $25 million, to be paid over a 5-year period. However, not one Chiquita official involved in the illegal transactions was forced to serve time for a crime that others have paid dearly for, mainly because they did not have the kind of legal backing that Holder’s team provided. Holder continues to represent Chiquita in the civil action, which grew out of this criminal case.
Holder had little or nothing to say about those who have been killed by these death squads, and, instead he suggested that it was the corporate officials who made a “painful decision” when pressed by the US department of justice, who wanted to continue pursuing the case.
Holder said:
“Here’s a company that voluntarily self-discloses in a national security context, where the company gets treated pretty harshly, [and] then on top of that, you go after individuals who made a really painful decision
.”
It should be clear whose interests this potential Attorney General will represent, not the people’s for sure, he will represent corporate interests – even when they are flagrantly violating human rights, and involved in funding terror organizations. So much for Obama’s “hope and change” – — the US imperialist policies will continue, with only a change in face. Holder continues to represent Chiquita in a civil case related to their death squad funding.
In the Islamic tradition, the martyrs, or shuhada are not considered dead, they are living. There is a similar tradition in Latin America, when the names of those who have died in the struggle for justice are recited in public gatherings, the people respond with the word Presente! after each name is called aloud.
All who have been killed or assassinated by paramilitary death squads in Latin America: Presente!
