WEDNESDAY, JUNE 02, 2010
The struggle to bring Dole Foods to justice continues! (June 2, 2010)
Schedule a Showing of Bananas!* in Your Community!
Nicaraguan workers accuse Dole of fraud and suborning testimony!
BANANAS!* is multi-layered courtroom drama delving into the global politics of food, the dynamics of First and Third world nations, and ultimately, human rights at the basest of levels.
Directed by investigative journalist Fredrik Gertten, BANANAS!* focuses on a landmark and highly controversial legal case pitting a dozen Nicaraguan plantation workers against Dole Food Corporation and its alleged use of a banned pesticide with a probable link to generations of sterilized workers.
Juan "Accidentes" Dominguez, a Los Angeles-based personal injury attorney, leads the charge in this classic David vs. Goliath story at times both infuriating and inspirational.
In spite of a suit against the filmmakers by Dole, the film was shown at Los Angeles Film Festival in 2009 and since then has been shown in film festivals around the world. For more information or to view a trailer of the film, go here.
To set up a screening of the film in your community, please contact: Jacob Wolters, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Jacob@oscilloscope.net, 212.219.4029 x38
Nicaraguan workers accuse Dole of fraud and suborning testimony!
The legal battle between Dole Food and Nicaraguan banana workers continues. In 2007, the multi-billion- dollar giant was sentenced in the case of Tellez v. Dole to pay punitive damages to six workers who said they were sterilized by the pesticide DBCP. Read about that case here.
One year later, anonymous Dole witnesses stated that several workers in two cases had never worked on banana farms and that this alleged fraud had infected all Nicaraguan banana suits. Judge Victoria Chaney accepted Dole's claims and further ruled that Dole's witnesses could not be revealed. According to Dole's lawyers, the Nicaraguan judge, lawyers, and plaintiffs conspired to illicitly obtain millions of dollars from the US company. Dole successfully spread their version of the story to international media, which was possible due to a court order protecting the identity of the witnesses, making their stories impossible to double check. [Read about that ruling here.] Dole then attempted to use its victory in the US court to win an annulment of an award from a Nicaraguan court.
But now some of those witnesses have come forward and declared that they were bribed by Dole to lie in the California case. Nicaraguan lawyer Antonio Hernandez said, "They deceived and bribed humble farmers who, because of their poverty, lied to [help Dole] overturn the sentence." Accompanied by over 1,000 former banana workers, Hernandez presented seven workers whom, he said, Dole had bribed with money, houses, and promises to bring them to live in the US if they would testify against the workers in the case.
Francisco Cano said, "What they wanted was that that I declare that the (medical) exams had been altered and that they had not worked on the banana plantations and they would give me US$225,000." He went on, "They took us to Costa Rica and there I said all that they asked." But, he concluded, "They deceived us; they deceived all of us. They just gave me US$300 and nothing more."
A new plaintiffs' lawyer in the Tellez case has filed a motion which seriously contests Dole's allegations of fraud. The new lawyer, Steve Condie, writes that Chaney's dismissal of all upcoming DBCP cases was not only unfair, but also a distraction from the genuine claim involving Dole's use of DBCP. In the motion, Condie writes that at least four of the anonymous "John Doe" witnesses were paid by Dole and that four more had their own personal motives to slander American lawyers involved in DBCP litigation in Nicaragua. And since the witnesses were anonymous, it is practically impossible to double check their statements, which is unfair. Court hearings will be held in Los Angeles this summer, dates will be announced soon.
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