Why Is Chiquita Blocking a 9/11 Victims’ Bill?

As some long time readers may recall, my mother's father launched his successful medical career by signing on as a surgeon and later a hospital administrator for United Fruit Company's Medical Department at the end of World War I as a way to get out of the army more quickly after spending America's years in that war stationed at what is now the VA Hospital in Hampton, Virginia.  My grandmother, a non-conforming New Orleans belle likewise signed on as a nurse for United Fruit Company's Medical Department after serving in Europe in the Army Nursing Corps.  My grand parents are shown in the image above. While the Medical Department did many positive things in Central America - clearing swamps, fighting malaria and yellow fever, and treating patients for free -  United Fruit Company had as a whole had a very ugly track record often siding with dictators or even aiding in the overthrow of non-accommodating governments.  Now, Chiquita, the descendant entity of United Fruit Company, seems to be repeating some of the ugly days of the 1920's through 1950's by opposing a 9/11 victims bill.  The Daily Beast looks at the situation.  Here are highlights:

Washington makes for strange alliances—and even stranger enemies. But this could wind up being the oddest confrontation of all. Chiquita, the world’s largest banana producer, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to block a 9/11 victims’ bill, The Daily Beast has learned. And outraged supporters of the legislation accuse a senior lawmaker, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA0, of working with the fruit kings to stand in their way.

 

According to Congressional lobbying disclosures, Chiquita has spent some $780,000 over the past year and a half lobbying against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), a bill conceived of and supported by a group of 9/11 victims and families to aid their claims against actors who supported the terrorist attacks.

The result is a stalled piece of terrorism legislation that shows the dizzying influence of a deeply pocketed corporation, and how its tremendous power is prevailing over the interests of the most sympathetic of little guys: 9/11 victims. And it illustrates how the influence of major fruit companies—such a core component of 20th-century American policy that they gave rise to the phrase “Banana Republics”—endures today.

“The path to justice for me and the other 9/11 family members and survivors is being blocked by a banana company. I think Chiquita should mind their own bananas and let justice be served,” said Terry Strada, whose husband was killed in the terrorist attacks.

The major fruit supplier is not in any way connected with 9/11, but in 2007 it pleaded guilty to making over 100 payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.

Chiquita, which had operated in Colombia for over 100 years, began making payments to the terrorist organization after a 1997 meeting between an AUC leader and a senior executive of its Colombian subsidiary. Nearly every month, additional payments followed. The fruit company has maintained that it only made payments due to extortionary threats of violence, and reacted to protect the lives of its workers.

Through a deal in which Chiquita was represented by now-Attorney General Eric Holder, the fruit company agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita acknowledged that between 1997 and 2004, it made over $1.7 million in payments in cash and checks to the terrorist group.

Having acknowledged payments to terrorists—though they claim to be extorted—Chiquita’s interests conflict with those of 9/11 victims’ families.

JASTA would clarify the Anti-Terrorism Act by expanding liability against those that had funded terrorists.

“It would also make it clear that victims of terrorist attacks both outside and inside the U.S. could seek damages against perpetrators,” explained Matt House, a spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the primary sponsor for the bill in the Senate.

By expanding the liability of groups that have aided and abetted terrorism, the bill incidentally became relevant to Chiquita, with its history of paying off the terrorists of the AUC.

Chiquita certainly appeared to respond as if JASTA were a threat. In the months after the bill was reintroduced in the House and Senate, the fourth quarter of 2013, Chiquita spent $450,000 hiring lobbyists from Covington and Burling, a high-powered white shoe law firm.

According to a Congressional source with direct knowledge of the lobbying, the fruit conglomerate approached lawmakers with Chiquita facilities in their districts—as well Congress members with influence over their senior colleagues like Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the primary sponsor of JASTA in the House.

The lobbyists appeared to find an ear in the office of senior lawmaker Rep. Bob Goodlatte. Goodlatte chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where JASTA now sits languishing.

There's more, but it looks like Chiquita reprized some of the bad old days of United Fruit Company and now wants to avoid the consequences.  It's little surprise that Bob Goodlatte, a Republican seems more that willing to act in exchange for Chiquita's money.

 

The Passing of a Generation

Yesterday I received the news that the last of my late mother's sisters has died (my aunt is pictured at left in the family passport photo from 1930 - my mother is the youngest child in the center).  There is no one left now who remembers first hand the remarkable and unusual lives my mother's parents and that she and her sisters experienced.  Like my mother, my aunt was born in Puerta Castilla, Honduras, which at the time was a model town built by United Fruit Company ("UFC") which thrived until a banana blight struck after my mothers family had moved to Puerto Armuelles, Panama.   My grandfather was the head of the hospitals in locations and as such was among the most important men in both places.  Despite United Fruit Company's many faults during the years that it was the de facto ruler of much of Central America, it did one thing right: the medical department treated everyone in the towns regardless of whether they were employed by the company.  As a result, medical care was significantly improved.

Today, Puerto Castilla is a container ship port and little remains of the 1920's town (pictured below at upper right) save and except for the former hospital building.  The structure in the upper left of the photo was the UFC built and operated school where my mother and her sisters began their education - in Spanish. 

Despite my entreaties that they write down their memories of this time that seems so remote, neither my mother or her sisters did so.  Hence my effort in some small way to keep the story alive via this blog and the assistance I gave three years ago to a Costa Rican publication that did a piece on the UFC medical department.   Here are some brief excerpts from my aunts obituary:

Catharine "Ann" Lopushinsky was born June 3, 1925, in Puerto Castilla, Honduras, to Dr. Bruce M. and Mary Azelie Hibben Phelps. Her early childhood years were spent in Honduras with her family. While she lived there, she learned to speak Spanish fluently. Ann attended Marymount Boarding School for Girls in NYC for grades 4-8. She later settled in Lowville, NY, with her family, where she finished her high school years.

During the '70s, '80s and into the '90s, she was an active member of the Red Cross Disaster Action Team. She responded at all hours of the day and night to fire calls in Syracuse, aiding those who lost their homes and needed assistance in housing, clothing and food. She also participated in Red Cross National Disaster Relief efforts. The longest one was in Puerto Rico for three months, during the mudslides. She stayed on there because she could speak Spanish with the residents and helped them to receive the aid that they needed.

Throughout her life, Ann loved gardening. She maintained extensive gardens in Liverpool and Syracuse, including an English garden, and belonged to the Rose Society. Her most favorite flower of all was the Hybrid Tea Rose.

Ann was predeceased by her beloved husband, Michael, and her sisters, Mary Alice Isachsen and Marion Hibben Hamar.

 
May they all rest in peace.  Oh, an in a bit of irony, my late sister's son is currently in the Peace Corps - in Panama.
 

Family Sadness - The Loss of a Favorite Aunt

This weekend - which was supposed to be light and cheery - has taken on a somber aspect. I just received a call from my sister to advise me that my mother's oldest sister (pictured at far right in the family passport photo above - my mother is sitting in my grandfather's lap) died last night. As a child growing up, she was a favorite of mine as we summered at the family lake house on Brantingham Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. Like my mother, my aunt, Mary Alice Phelps Isachsen, but always known as "Mickie" within the family, had a long and adventurous life having been born in Panama, lived in Honduras, traveled on United Fruit Company's "Greet White Fleet" ships, and then went on to have a long career in the medical field.

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I had not talked to her in a while and wish I'd had the chance to speak one last time. Among other things, I wanted to tell her about a cruise the boyfriend and I will be doing in the fall in the Mediterranean. She and her late husband cruised regularly (my cousins sometimes stayed with us so that my aunt and uncle could have an adult get away) and first stirred my interest in ships and the sea. One of the last treasured vacations my dad had before his illness confined him from traveling was with my aunt Mickie and her husband and my mom down at the quaint village of Ocracoke in the Outer Banks where they had a wonderful time.
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I will miss her greatly and my heart goes out to my cousins in this time of grief and loss.

The Banana Chronicles - A Part of My Family Heritage

Months ago I was contacted by a journalist in Costa Rica working for an online magazine, Neotropica, that was going to do an issue on the good, the bad, and the ugly of United Fruit Company's activities in Central America during the first half of the 20th century. I was contacted because of a post I had done on this blog that referenced my family's ties to Central America - particularly Honduras where my mother (the smallest child in the photo above) was born and Panama where she later lived. The magazine issue is now up online and can be found here. The story on my grandparents (pictured below in 1922), which includes a number of family photos from the 1920's and 1930's that I furnished to the publication, begins on page 17 of the magazine. My mother still holds investment interests in both Panama and Honduras and I hope to visit both countries someday.
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United Fruit did many unfortunate things during its de facto rule of Central America. However, I remain convinced that the Medical Department of which my grandfather was a member, did much good and that the medical personnel had the best of motives. I'd be interested in hearing readers' thoughts.

Weekend Retrospective and Thoughts on A Bygone Time

The boyfriend and I are back from Charlottesville after an uneventful drive back - the Interstate between Richmond and Williamsburg was nasty - and I feel much better having visited my mother (pictured at left around 1950) who seems mentally pretty sharp and able to get around her home using a cane. It is very hard to se one's parents fading from their former selves. It happens to all of us, but it is not easy nonetheless.

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While visiting I got copies of some old photos from my mother's first home town - Puerto Castilla, Honduras. Today, the town is a container port and other than the hospital building nothing remains of the 1920-1930's town shown in the pictures below. I am working with a writer in Central America currently who is writing a story on the good things done by United Fruit Company which is often looked badly upon for its political role in Central America, much of which occurred after my mother's family left Central America prior to World War II. My grandfather was a surgeon and hospital administrator for UFC and worked to bring need medical care to the locales where he worked. I hope readers enjoy the photos.

My grandmother and my oldest aunt.

Puerto Castilla, Honduras Hospital at right and school in upper left.

My mother's first home.

My grandfather at left sailing.

My grandfather - WWI based on the uniform

Thoughts on My Family History

While visiting my mother last weekend, I had occasion to look through some of the dozens of family photo albums that she has maintained. Some of the photos date back to prior to World War I, but most date from about 1920 or so forward to the present. Her father was a photography freak for decades, taking all kinds of photos. Many of the older pictures are from my mother’s childhood and her parents’ days in Honduras and Panama (my mother was born in Honduras in the small town of Puerto Castilla, which at the time was a main port in Honduras for United Fruit Company (“UFC”) – a view towards the peninsula where the town is located, with the town of Trujillo in the foreground is posted above. Later she lived in Puerto Armuelles, Panama, where her father was transferred to head up another hospital.

My mother’s childhood was definitely like something out of a novel or a movie involving a colonial style type of world: as chief surgeon and head of the local hospital owned and operated by UFC, her father was one of the most important people in the towns they lived in, they had servants, and traveled to the USA by ship – one of the 100+ ships of UFC’s “great white fleet,” among the first air-conditioned ships - generally at least once a year to visit my grandmother’s family in New Orleans and my grandfather’s family in New York State. I have been trying to get my mother to write some memoirs so that her memories will not be lost after she and her sisters are (at 80, my mom is the youngest of them).

While much maligned – sometimes with very good reason because of its political interference in local national government affairs - United Fruit Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company) did do a large degree of good in terms of building infrastructure: railroads, port facilities, schools, etc. My mother’s recollections are similar to these:

In addition to providing employment to tens of thousands of workers and paying them the nation's best rural wages, the Company also offered its employees excellent medical care, rent-free housing, and six years of free schooling for countless children. By clearing and draining thousands of acres of jungle that are today among the most productive farm lands, United Fruit converted Guatemala for example into a major banana producer, thereby ending the country's unhealthy dependence on its exports of coffee. The Company's pioneering work in eliminating malaria and other tropical diseases early in the twentieth century also allowed rich, previously unexploited agricultural zones.

Somewhere my mom still has some of the medical research journals published by the UFC medical staffs that we used to look at as children, with articles on exotic medical issues ranging from malaria and yellow fever to shark bites, some written by my grandfather. Since UFC provided free medical care, my mother still has some of the small gifts that local Honduran and Panamanian company employees gave to my grandfather to thank him for surgical and other procedures he did for them or their family members. Whatever, UFC’s failings, it provided my mother and her family a unique opportunity to live in a different culture and to experience a way of life that is now gone forever. Besides reprints of some of the photos I have had framed, as a reminder of that life in my bedroom at my home I have an amazing intricately carved cedar chest my grandparents bought from Chinese merchants circa 1920.

My Central American Ties

Visiting my mother this past weekend gave me a chance to look at old photo albums with pictures of my mothers parents and from her childhood. My grandparents, as I have mentioned before, were quite adventurous for the times in which they were young and I wish that they had lived longer so that I could have known them better as an adult. I am trying to encourage my mother to write down her recollections from when she lived in Central America - it was an time and existence long gone and in some ways like something out of a movie. So far she has not done so, but this March 2, 2000 Virginian Pilot article gives a sense of it all:

TRANSFER OF PANAMA CANAL CONTROL HOLDS SPECIAL MEANING FOR WOMAN BAYLAKE PINES COUPLE MAINTAIN TIES TO AREA WITH INVESTMENTS

With the dawn of the new millennium, most in the United States were focused on celebrating or on the infamous Y2K bug happenings. Little fanfare was paid to an historic event that took place at noon Dec. 31. But George and Marion Hamar of Baylake Pines were watching as the United States officially transferred control of the Panama Canal to the Republic of Panama.

It was a special moment for Marion Hamar, because she spent her early childhood in Panama, where her father practiced medicine. “The land divided, the world united'' reads the backside of a medal earned by Bruce M. Phelps, Hamar's father. He earned the medal while working on the canal from 1910-13. At the time, he was 24 and one of 44,000, including 5,000 Americans, who worked on the 50-mile project.

So began a family's ties to a small tropical country. After working construction on the canal, Phelps returned to the United States in 1913 to attend medical school at Vanderbilt University. After graduating in 1917, he was drafted in the Army and was sent to Ancon Hospital in the Canal Zone, in Panama for a year-long surgical internship. Afterward, he was stationed at a military hospital in Hampton.

When Phelps left the Army, he got a job with United Fruit Company, a corporation that produced and distributed fruit. Hamar's mother, Azelie Hibben, a registered nurse and World War I veteran, did the same. The couple met in Panama. They married and had three daughters, Mary Alice, born in Panama, and Ann and Marion, both born in Honduras. The family lived in Central America, mostly Panama, until moving to New York in 1939.

``In those days the fruit companies created entire towns at the ports including schools, roads, waterworks, a golf course, swimming pools and the hospital. They also built railroads to bring the bananas from the country to the port,'' Hamar said. The fruit company owned everything, we could go anywhere, do anything. The company took care of the employees, providing them with housing and medical care,'' Hamar said. Phelps was the superintendent of the hospital, which the fruit company owned. He also served as the chief surgeon. Therefore, the Phelps family received special benefits. “My father had the only car in town, and mom had a nurse and a cook,'' Hamar said. It was a great place to live, typical plantation living. We had all sorts of fruit: tangerines, oranges, papayas, and of course bananas, even the horses ate bananas,'' Hamar said.

The Hamars decided to invest money in Central America because of the connection. “Past and current investments are part sentimental, part economics. We had an original investment from Marion's dad, held on to it, and added to it,'' George Hamar said. They're pleased Panama took control of the canal. George, a retired stock broker, and Marion, a retired cytotechnologist, have lived in Virginia Beach since 1973. They have five children and 10 grandchildren.

My mother continues to own banking stock in Panama and brewery stock in Honduras. I have never been to either Panama or Honduras, but sincerely hope to visit there some day. Panama City, Panama is pictured above.