Del Monte
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">banana
</font><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-a7d9e3f4-dddc-d26f-8144-f8d079e8a6b1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">del monte bought small co --> rival (but actually ~ takeover bid), secretly bot ufco land in guate; 45k acres beef ~ squatters</span></font></p><div><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Power of the Tort</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
If POCLAD’s project of reviving the dormant practice of charter
revocation seems quixotic, consider the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA),
one of the first laws that followed the ratification of the Constitution in
1789. At first glance, it would seem even more quixotic to attempt to
revive a dusty law that had lain in hiberation for two centuries and that
had been written originally for suing with pirates and protecting diplomats.
Nevertheless, in 1979, lawyers for a Paraguayan couple rediscovered
the law and used it successfully in a lawsuit against a Paraguayan
police officer accused of murdering the couple’s son.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
The ACTA applies to violations “against the law of nations,” i.e.
laws committed outside the context of the United States legal system.
With its revival, a mechanism now exists for addressing horrific crimes
whose victims would otherwise have never found justice. The ATCA
has led to a number of suits against corporations. In 1996, the International
Labor Rights Fund assisted Burmese villagers in filing a suit
against Unocal, charging that the oil and gas company had used forced
labor in building a pipeline in Burma. Other suits have targeted Shell
(for alleged human rights abuses in Nigeria), Texaco (for allegedly
dumping toxic waste in Ecuador), Coca-Cola (for allegedly using paramilitary
forces to suppress union activity in Colombia),<b> Del Monte (for
allegedly hiring thugs who tortured union leaders in Guatemala)</b>, Dyn-
Corp (for allegedly spraying Ecuadorian villagers with toxic chemicals),
and the Drummond Company (for allegedly hiring gunmen to assassinate
union leaders in Colombia). gangs of am</font>
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