The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink
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Page 172 Fuerzas Armadas . . . Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia: Kirk, 47-55; Dudley, 19.
Page 173 infiltrated the unions in the banana-processing plants: Dudley, 129.
Page 173 kidnapping and holding wealthy people: Kirk, 67.
Page 173 ELN “taxed” bottling plants: “Los paras contra Coca-Cola,” Cambio, February 8, 1999.
Page 173 rancher named Ramón Isaza: Joseph Contreras, “Paramilitary Patriarch,” Newsweek, September 6, 1999.
Page 173 they began killing FARC and ELN “tax collectors”: Kirk, 102-125; Dudley, 73. Page 173 increasingly brutal massacres: Dudley, 19, 71-73.
Page 173 paramilitaries . . . declared illegal: Kirk, 125-128.
Page 173 Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia: Kirk, 141-177.
Page 174 the brutal Freddy Rendón Herrera: David Adams, “Colombia Shaken As Paramilitary Leaders Testify,” St. Petersburg Times, June 18, 2007.
Page 174 ordering the deaths of three thousand: “‘H.H.’ se confiesa,” El spectador, August 2, 2008; “Ex-Paramilitary Chief in Colombia Admits to Atrocities,” Agence France Presse, August 3, 2008.
Page 174 decapitated a boy in front of the crowd: Kirk, 195; Joshua Hammer, “Mayor with a Mission,” Newsweek, April 21, 1997; Tom Boswell, “Leading a City That Has Become a Battlefield,” National Catholic Reporter, January 24, 1997.
Page 174 cut off the head of an elderly man: Adams, “Colombia Shaken As Paramilitary Leaders Testify.”
Page 174 bottling plant in Carepa was struggling: Luis Hernán Manco Monroy and Oscar Giraldo Arango, interviews by the author.
Page 174 SINALTRAINAL began to organize workers: Alejandro García, lawyer for SINALTRAINAL, interview by the author; William José Alberto Cruz Suarez deposition, Gil 2:191-196.
Page 174 workers can be fired at will: Alejandro García, interview by the author.
Page 175 Manco simply disappeared: Manco, interview by the author.
Page 175 Two weeks later, it was Giraldo’s turn: Giraldo, interview by the author.
Page 175 shot while drinking on his front stoop: Gómez death certificate, Gil 1:82; letter from Luz Marina Cifuentes Cataño, March 31, 1997; Gil 1:108-109.
Page 175 seeing Milan socializing with local paramilitaries: Complaint (1), SINALTRAINAL v. Coke, 20; Manco and Giraldo, interviews by the author.
Page 175 “sweep away the union”: Complaint, SINALTRAINAL v. Coke (1), 19; Luís Adolfo Cardona Usma deposition, Gil 2:181-187.
Page 175 “hasn’t been destroyed”: Hernán Manco, amplification of deposition, Gil 1: 283-291; Manco, interview by the author.
Page 176 protesting Milan’s associations: Letter from Javier Correa to Bebidas y Alimientos de Urabá, September 27, 1995, included as exhibit B to original complaint (1), SINALTRAINAL v. Coke.
Page 176 negotiating a new labor contract: List of worker demands, November 22, 1996, Gil 2:226-230.
Page 176 Born in a small town . . . thrived at the plant: Martín Gil, interview by the author.
Page 176 argued for a workers’ compensation payment: Report, Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación (hereafter CTI) Apartadó, June 18, 1997, Gil 1:269-279; Ariosto Milan Mosquera deposition, Gil 4:16-21.
Page 176 crack of a pistol rang out behind him: Giraldo, interview by the author.
Page 176 watched Gil’s head snap backward: Manco, interview by the author.
Page 177 ten bullets . . . outside the gate: Gil autopsy report, December 10, 1996 (Diligencia de Necropsia, No. UCH-NC-96-412), Gil 1:87; photographs of Gil’s body, Gil 1:243- 246. Neither the Coca-Cola Company nor its bottlers have ever denied that Gil was killed at the plant. In initial reports, the company claimed that he died outside the gates; however, in more recent interviews, including the author’s interview of Ed Potter, the company has conceded that he was killed inside the plant.
Page 177 Adolfo Cardona, ran to the body: Cardona, interview by the author; Cardona deposition, Gil 2:181-187.
Page 177 jumped on his own motorcycle . . . declare him dead: Gil, interview by the author.
Page 177 known as “El Diablo”. . . safety of the police station: Cardona, interview by the author; Cardona deposition.
Page 178 Bebidas would buy plane tickets: Manco and Giraldo, interviews by the author.
Page 178 paramilitaries were busy breaking into the union hall: Letter from Javier Correa and Hernán Manco to Fiscalía, Gil 1:52; CTI Antioquia report, October 5, 1998, Gil 1, unidentified page; Complaint (1), SINALTRAINAL v. Coke, 21.
Page 179 “That kid was murdered at the plant”: Manco, interview by the author.
Page 179 forty-five members signed letters or fled town: List prepared by Javier Correa, and resignation letters, Gil 2:100-150.
Page 179 wasn’t an isolated occurrence: Javier Correa, interview by the author.
Page 179 SINALTRAINAL is unapologetically militant: Lesley Gill, interview by the author; SINALTRAINAL, Una delirante ambición imperial (Bogotá: Universo Latino, 2003).
Page 180 nothing to say about the situation: Amplification of deposition of William José Alberto Cruz Suarez, Gil 2:216-220; Alejandro García, interview by the author.
Page 180 learned about the murder days after: Mark Thomas, Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola (New York: Nation Books, 2009), 351.
Page 180 fault of the paramilitaries: Detention order for Miguel Enrique Vergara Salgado, Gil 3:320-347.
Page 180 terminated for “abandoning their place of work”: Lesley Gill, “Labor and Human Rights: ‘The Real Thing’ in Colombia,” paper presented to the Human Rights Committee of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., November 28, 2004; amplification of deposition of William José Alberto Cruz Suarez, Gil 2:216-220.
Page 180 “You have to leave”: Manco, interview by the author.
Page 181 threatened him at gunpoint: Giraldo, interview by the author.
Page 181 “No, we do not drink”: Manco and Giraldo, interviews by the author.
Page 181 “Conducting business in the current environment”: Jeffrey Distler, Consumer Affairs Specialist, The Coca-Cola Company, to Ellie Mitchell, United Steelworkers Union, October 24, 2001.
Page 182 established a code of ethics: The Coca-Cola Company, Supplier Guiding Principles, http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/pdf/SGP_Brochure_ENG.pdf.
Page 182 investigation into Gil’s murder: Fiscalía General de la Nación, Unidad Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Radicado Preliminar No. 164 (Gil).
Page 182 identity of “Caliche”: CTI report, October 5, 1998, Gil 1: 205-206; Ariel Gómez death certificate, Gil 1:280.
Page 182 identified as Enrique Vergara: Letter from Gloria Correa Martínez, Unidad Nacional de Derechos Humanos, August 1998, Gil 1:163.
Page 182 henchman of El Alemán: CTI report, June 19, 1998, Gil 1:313-324; CTI report, undated, Gil 1:327-330.
Page 182 Multiple witnesses . . . hang out with them: José Joaquín Giraldo Graciano deposition, Gil 2:24-29; José Heriberto Sierra Renfigo deposition, Gil 2:30-36; Gudnara del Socorro Osorio deposition, Gil 2:41-46.
Page 182 Marín let the paramilitaries: Joaquín Giraldo deposition, Gil 2:24-29; José Heriberto Sierra Renfigo deposition, Gil 2:30-34; Humberto de Jesús Peña deposition, Gil 2:35-40.
Page 182 Milan had resigned: Ariosto Milan Mosquera to Richard Kirby Kielland, November 28, 1996, Gil 3:17.
Page 182 Marín left six months later: Rigoberto Marín Restrepo to Peggy Ann Kielland, June 25, 1997, Gil 3:24.
Page 182 not only for Cepillo, but for Marín and Milan as well: Arrest warrants, February 10, 1999, Gil 2:233-250.
Page 183 “leaves not the slightest doubt”: Orders for preventive detention, September 2, 1999, Gil 3:219-247.
Page 183 declared their innocence . . . collaborating with guerrillas himself: Ferenc Alain Legitime Julio (Milan’s lawyer), undated letter, Gil 3:267-278; Ariosto Milan Mosquera deposition, Gil 4:16-21; Rigoberto Marín Restrepo deposition, Gil 4:22-26; Rigoberto Marín Restr
epo amplification of deposition, Gil 4:124-130.
Page 183 it didn’t have sufficient evidence: Decision, June 19, 2000, Gil 4:153-161.
Page 183 typical of the Colombian justice system: Dora Lucy, interview by the author.
Page 183 fewer than a hundred convictions: Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009—Colombia, January 14, 2009.
Page 183 public backlash: Human Rights Watch, “Attorney General Reno in Colombia, March 3-4,” Human Rights Watch Backgrounder, March, 3, 1999.
Page 184 arrested General Alejo del Río: Human Rights Watch, “A Wrong Turn: The Record of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office,” Colombia 14, no. 3(B) (2002).
Page 169 sacked the head of the Human Rights Unit: Human Rights Watch, “A Wrong Turn,” 2.
Page 184 “Osorio did severe damage”: Adam Isacson, interview by the author.
Page 184 bases near Coca-Cola bottling plants: Steven Dudley, “War in Colombia’s Oil-fields,” The Nation, August 5, 2002.
Page 184 met with AUC head Carlos Castaño: “Los paras contra Coca-Cola,” Cambio, February 8, 1999.
Page 185 “I don’t think it’s valid”: Maria McFarland, interview by the author.
Page 186 profits of $10 million a year: David J. Lynch, “Murder and Payoffs Taint Business in Colombia,” USA Today, October 30, 2007.
Page 186 company insisted . . . banana plantations of Urabá: Sibylla Brodzinsky, “Chiquita Case Puts Big Firms on Notice,” Christian Science Monitor, April 11, 2007.
Page 186 “Simply put”: David J. Lynch, “Murder and Payoffs Taint Business in Colombia,” USA Today, October 30, 2007.
Page 186 “peace and justice” law: “The Perils of ‘Parapolitics,’ ” The Economist, March 23, 2007.
Page 186 “The companies that benefited”: “‘H.H.’ se confiesa,” El spectador, August 2, 2008.
Page 186 arrangement with Chiquita as well as Dole: José Gregorio Mangones Luno affidavit, October 29, 2009, Does (1-44) v. Chiquita Brands International Inc. et al., United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 9:2008cv80465; Charlie Cray, “Hiring Death Squads Is Coming Back to Haunt U.S. Companies,” AlterNet, February 16, 2010; Juan Smith, “Colombia; Ex-Paramilitary Implicates Two U.S. Companies in Murder of Trade Unionists,” North American Congress on Latin America, December 14, 2009.
Page 186 Raúl Hasbún . . . ordering the deaths: “Las confesiones de Raúl Hasbún,” Semana, October 4, 2008, English version.
Page 187 Isidro Gil . . . “collecting money for the guerrillas”: Steven Dudley, “Colombian Paramilitary Tells How He Financed His Own Murder Inc.: Bananas,” Miami Herald, March 21, 2009.
Page 187 Magdalena Medio . . . hundreds of bodies: Dudley, 41-43, 65; Kirk, 110, 125.
Page 187 Barrancabermeja was outside their control: Dudley, 18-19, 123.
Page 187 “The threats started in 2001”: Juan Carlos Galvis, interview by the author.
Page 188 SINALTRAINAL had nearly two thousand members: William Mendoza, interview by the author.
Page 188 expanding throughout other South American countries: Panamerican Beverages Inc., Annual Report, 2003.
Page 188 acquired a 10 percent share . . . “anchor bottler”: Panamerican Beverages Inc., Annual Report, 2003; “Panamerican Beverages and Panamco LLC Historical Timeline,” submitted as exhibit to a deposition in SINALTRAINAL v. Coke, May 1, 2003; “Anchors Aboard: Coke Gives Panamco Larger Bottling Role in Latin America,” Beverage World, December 1, 1995.
Page 188 25 percent by 1997: “Panamerican Beverages and Panamco LLC Historical Timeline,” submitted as exhibit to a deposition in SINALTRAINAL v. Coke, May 1, 2003; “Panamco Merges with Coca-Cola y Hit de Venezuela; Strengthens Position as Leading Anchor Bottler,” Business Wire, May 12, 1997.
Page 188 Panamco consolidated seventeen plants: Panamerican Beverages Inc., Annual Report, 2003.
Page 189 Some 6,700 Coke workers . . . cutting contracts with its workers: Gill, “Labor and Human Rights”; Lesley Gill, “Coca-Cola in Colombia: Increased Profits, Downsized Workforce,” Colombia Journal, July 27, 2004.
Page 189 acquired by Mexico’s Coca-Cola FEMSA: Panamco proxy statement, March 23, 2003; Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A. de C.V., Annual Report, 2004.
Page 189 officials met directly with a member . . . spared any violence: Galvis and Mendoza, interviews by the author; Amnesty International, “Colombia: Killing, Arbitrary Detentions, and Death Threats—The Reality of Trade Unionism in Colombia,” January 23, 2007.
Page 189 Galvis saw Rincón inside the company: Galvis and Mendoza, interviews by the author.
Page 189 arrested and convicted for conspiracy: “Por homicidio de tesorero de la USO cuatro condenados,” Fiscalía, April 11, 2007, http://www.fiscalia.gov.co/PAG/DIVULGA/noticias2007/seccionales/SeccHomicidioAbr11.htm; “Aviso de citación a versión libre,” Fiscalía, http://www.fiscalia.gov.co/justiciapaz/DetalleVersion.asp?ce=91422724; Galvis, interview by the author; Michael Lydon, “Interview: Juan Carlos Galvis Discusses Colombia’s Fight Against Coca-Cola and Its Bitter Attacks on Himself and His Family,” Morning Star (London), June 13, 2005.
Page 190 threats against Galvis . . . then her husband: Galvis, interview by the author.
Page 190 several men tried to pull . . . Mendoza declined: Mendoza, interview by the author; Final Report, “An Investigation of Allegations of Murder and Violence in Coca-Cola’s Bottling Plants,” NYC Fact-Finding Delegation on Coca-Cola in Colombia led by New York City councilman Hiram Monserrate, April 2004.
Page 191 witnesses reported that an armed robbery: Galvis, interview by the author.
Page 192 “He’ll work a year” . . . “They are going to disappear me”: Álvaro González, interview by the author.
Page 194 “I told them” . . . “We haven’t done anything wrong”: González and Domingo Flores, interviews by the author.
Page 194 earned the nickname “Chile”: Luis Eduardo García, interview by the author.
Page 194 in death threats he is referred to by that nickname: García, interview by the author; undated death threat signed “Águilas Negras.”
Page 195 When Chile first pulled into . . . pieces of candy: González, Flores, and García, interviews by the author.
Page 196 fired from their jobs: González, García, Flores, and Laura Milena García, interviews by the author.
Page 196 174 days in La Modelo: González, interview by the author.
Page 196 case started falling apart . . . ending the investigation: Fiscalía General de la Nación, Radicado No. 7834, San José de Cúcuta.
Page 196 prosecutors declined to press charges: Eduardo García and Alejandro García Salzedo, union lawyer for SINALTRAINAL, interviews by the author.
Page 196 In 2002, González’s daughter . . . “I become another Álvaro”: González, interview by the author.
Page 197 union has been decimated: Carlos Olaya, interview by the author.
Page 197 outsourcing of the workforce: Olaya, interview by the author.
Page 198 wages are even worse: Olaya, interview by the author.
Page 198 Coca-Cola now controls 60 percent: Olaya, interview by the author.
Page 198 threats against SINALTRAINAL continue: Human Rights Watch, Paramilitaries’ Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia, February 3, 2010.
Page 198 or even e-mailed: E-mail provided by Juan Carlos Galvis.
Page 198 paramilitaries kidnapped Flores’s son: Flores, interview by the author; also reported by Colombia Solidarity Campaign, “Death Threat/Fear for Safety,” October 5, 2007, http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=45.
Page 198 Chile’s daughter Laura Milena García was targeted: Laura Milena García, interview by the author.
CHAPTER 8 . THE FULL FORCE OF THE LAW
Page 202 “At a pretty young age”: Dan Kovalik, interview by the author.
Page 202 has done nothing to stem cocaine production: U.S. Government Accountability Office Report 09-71,
“Plan Colombia: Drug Reduction Goals Were Not Fully Met, but Security Has Improved; U.S. Agencies Need More Detailed Plans for Reducing Assistance,” October 2008.
Page 203 began in Malaysia: Terry Collingsworth, interview by the author.
Page 205 provided enormous wiggle room to companies: Lance Compa and Jeffrey S. Vogt, “Labor Rights in the Generalized System of Preferences: A 20-Year Review,” Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 22, no. 2/3 (2005), 199-238.
Page 205 Bill Clinton mediated a compromise: National Consumer League, “One Sweatshop Is Too Many: NCL Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the White House Apparel Industry Partnership,” press release, November 14, 1996.
Page 206 Global Sullivan Principles . . . “safe and healthy workplace”: Global Sullivan Principles, “Charter Endorsers,” “Frequently Asked Questions,” “Principles,” http://www.thesullivanfoundation.org/gsp/.
Page 206 principles against the use of child labor overseas: Don Melvin, “Child Labor Treaty Has Atlanta Backer,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 17, 1999.
Page 206 they were completely voluntary: The Coca-Cola Company, “Code of Business Conduct,” http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/pdf/COBC_English.pdf.
Page 206 a 2005 report by the company: David Teather, “Nike Lists Abuses at Asian Factories,” Guardian, April 14, 2005.
Page 206 “At the end of the day”: Terry Collingsworth, interview by the author.
Page 207 done for the benefit of two foreign companies: Phillis R. Morgan and R. Bradley Mokros, “International Legal Developments in Review: 2000,” International Lawyer, Summer 2001.
Page 207 “You’re a smart lawyer”: Terry Collingsworth, interview by the author.
Page 207 “another example of imperialism”: Tamar Lewin, “Judge Bars U.S. Suits on Bhopal,” New York Times, May 13, 1986
Page 207 Alien Tort Claims Act: United States Code, Title 28, Part IV, Chapter 85, §1350.
Page 208 used exactly twice before 1980: Pamela J. Stephens, “Spinning Sosa: Federal Common Law, the Alien Tort Statute, and Judicial Restraint,” Boston University International Law Journal 25, no. 1 (Spring 1997), 1-36.