Clinton Foundation more concerned with Bill’s pal than Colombia’s poor

The Clinton Foundation’s philanthropic work in Colombia did more to promote a wealthy donor’s business interests than help the country’s poor residents escape poverty, a new investigative report claims.
The report by the Fusion network and the American Media Institute revealed that foundation projects in the South American country opened doors for Frank Giustra, a close pal of Bill Clinton and major donor to the Clinton Foundation, to buy property and open an oil business called Pacific Rubiales.
US agencies and global lending institutions pumped $100 million into Giustra’s Colombian ventures, thanks in large part to his ties to the Clinton Foundation, the report said.
But labor leaders charged that foundation programs “caused environmental harm, displaced indigenous people and . . . concentrated a larger share of Colombia’s oil and natural gas reserves in the hands of Giustra.”
“They are doing nothing for workers. I don’t even know what they are doing in this country other than exploiting poverty and extracting money,” one union official told Fusion.
Advocates for the poor charged that Pacific Rubiales used front groups to buy up blocks of land to get around laws barring a single ownership of more than 3,000 acres.
“This has created a grave situation and they took control of land that was intended for peasants, said Colombian Senator Jesus Alberto Castilla.

Frank Giustra with Clinton

Work and safety conditions were horrible, the report said.
A worker was killed and another badly injured when a cement wall fell on them at a 389-acre port development project called Puerto Bahia.
But instead of immediately taking the two workers to a nearly hospital, they were treated by paramedics in a tent at the facility.
“Pacific did not want the stain on their reputations from worker accidents,” Julio Carrascal of the Colombian oil workers’ union said. “They didn’t want the news to get out.”
Said Colombian Senator Jorge Robledo, “The territory where Pacific Rubiales operated was a type of concentration camp for workers.”
While union leaders and human rights activists complained of abuses, Bill Clinton jetted in for a Pacific Rubiales golf tournament at the Bogota Country Club in February 2012. Accompanied by Giustra, he played a few holes with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
The event raised $1 million for the Clinton Foundation, the report said.
“Bill Clinton didn’t come here to play golf. Clinton opened doors for Giustra to do business here,” a Colombian senator said.
Giustra’s bustling oil company ended up going bankrupt.
Source: http://nypost.com/2016/10/15/clinton-foundation-more-concerned-with-bills-pal-than-colombias-poor/