Who Hijacked Our Country

Monday, October 27, 2014

Monsanto Suing Guatemala

Our little corporate Frankenstein is growing up.  After years of suing and crushing local governments and small farmers, Monsanto has now graduated to suing entire countries.

This past August, Guatemala passed a law — supposedly because of international trade agreements — mandating huge fines and prison sentences for farmers who reuse their genetically modified seeds from one year to the next.  Guatemala is one of the world's poorest countries, and there were massive demonstrations and blockades to protest the Monsanto Protection Act.

One month later, the Guatemalan government bowed to public pressure and repealed the Monsanto Protection Act (officially known as the Plant Variety Protection Law).

No wonder the American Plutocracy liked it to much better when Central American countries were one giant colony for Corporate America, instead of the uppity democracies they're turning into now.

Monsanto is now planning to sue the government of Guatemala.  Talk about Goliath hitting David with a slingshot.


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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

At first I thought all Guatemala has to do is say "Fuck You!" pull up the crops and use native or other brands of seeds. Then I remember that companies like Monsanto have so controlled the market up here, that short of a few organic farmer's market venues, there is no place a farmer can sell his non Monsanto crops on a large scale.

But I think the point of the article is that a corporation can sue a country. Well I'm sure if they can't collect "damages" Monsanto can get the US government to impose trade sanctions.

Erik

October 31, 2014 at 11:29 AM  
Blogger Tom Harper said...

Erik: About ten years ago Harken Energy threatened to sue Costa Rica because that country wasn't going to let Harken drill for oil in a Costa Rican wildlife sanctuary. I don't remember if Harken followed through with the suit or not.

October 31, 2014 at 1:37 PM  

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