To Pay or Not to Pay

I’m sure you’re already aware of the government’s position regarding the payment of ransom or any form of financial aid to groups that have been tagged as terrorists. I have no problem with this policy. In fact, I think it’s a necessary one. If governments would cower in fear and quickly reach for its purse every time one of its citizens gets abducted by good-for-nothing bandits, then they’ll be technically abetting the latter’s reprehensible acts.

All this tough talk is easy for us who haven’t been victimized by kidnapping syndicates or terror groups. I could just imagine the scorn that the policy gets from the family and friends of those who have been abducted by the outlawed groups. I’m sure they don’t care if giving money to the criminals would just result into more kidnappings in the future. It’s only natural that they would do all that they can to save their loved ones.

This was the dilemma that Chiquita faced. The banana company mainly gets it supply of the fruit from their plantation in Colombia. Unfortunately, the location of the farm is known to be one of the kidnapping hotspots in the world. Their employees are in constant danger of being taken against their will. Fortunately, not one of the plantation workers are in the custody of the terrorist groups lurking in the area.

This doesn’t mean though, that the security situation in the Chiquita farm is good. On the contrary, many terror groups operate in the area. It’s not surprising then that the company had received demands for protection money from one of the bandit groups that control the area.

In order to ensure the security of its employees, Chiquita acceded to the demands of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and paid protection money to the group. The Justice Department found out that it had paid AUC a total of $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004. A $25-million fine was meted out to the company for dealing with the terrorist organization.

I can’t blame Chiquita for dealing with people whose criminal records are probably as thick as a telephone directory. I just hope that the military and law enforcement groups in Colombia would exert strenuous efforts in eradicating the area around the plantation of unwanted criminals.