Thursday, March 04, 2010
Missionaries Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenehoff, Killed by FARC
Doing business in Columbia has proven to be expensive for food company Chiquita, which has paid millions of dollars in ransoms to terrorists and now is being sued by Americans whose relatives were killed by the same groups. Chiquita’s payment of at least $25 million to organizations like leftist guerrillas FARC to protect its employees has resulted in lawsuits against the corporation by the families of murdered American missionaries who contend the company’s deal-making amounted to supporting terrorism.
Tania Julin is among the plaintiffs going after Chiquita. Her husband, Mark Rich, was abducted by FARC in 1993 while the couple and their children were performing missionary work in neighboring Panama. It was years before Tania Julin found out her husband and other kidnapped missionaries were executed by the guerillas.
Her lawsuit (Julin et al. v. Chiquita Brands Int’l) is moving forward in a federal court in south Florida after a judge rejected Chiquita’s motion to dismiss the case. Julin is suing on the basis of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991, which permits American citizens and survivors to be compensated for injuries resulting from international terrorism.
In 2007, Chiquita was sued for giving money to the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia. It settled out of court.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Banana Land and the Corporate Death Squad Scandals (by Charlie Cray, CorpWatch)
Chiquita Finding Bittersweet for Families of Men Killed in Colombia (by Arthur Brice, CNN)
Julin et al. v Chiquita Brands Int’l, Inc. (Osen LLC)
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