Bienvenido George W? Putting the soldiers back on the streets
Mar 212007  In May 2004, Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands
announced that it had voluntarily told the U.S. Justice
Department about payments that its Colombian subsidiary,
Banadex, had made to unspecified Colombian terrorist groups.  At
the time, the story made few headlines beyond wire-service
reports and a piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer. It was soon all
but forgotten. It looked like Chiquita had performed a masterful
bit of â€œscandal management,â€ the branch of public relations
that contends, â€œThe cover-up is always worse than the crime,
so get it all out as soon as possible.â€  Yet since the
announcement late last week that Chiquita and the Justice
Department had agreed on a $25 million fine in exchange for a
guilty plea, the Chiquita story has only drawn more attention
and debate in both the United States and Colombia. Why is this?
1. The details. Unlike Chiquita’s 2004 unilateral announcement,
the plea agreement discusses at length what