In 2004 Human Rights Watch exposed the fact that Coca-Cola's sugar supplier in El Salvador uses sugar cane harvested by children. Film footage taken in 2007 and aired as part of a nationally televised documentary in the UK confirmed that child labor is rampant on the plantations harvesting cane for Coca-Cola's sugar supplier.
A book entitled "Belching Out the Devil" by Mark Thomas, published in the United States in 2009, makes it quite clear Coca-Cola has done nothing to seriously address and stop this child abuse.
Unfortunately, many years after Human Rights Watch's expose on Coca-Cola and child labor, it should be asked: Is Central Izalco still a supplier of sugar for any Coca-Cola products? Is child labor still being used to harvest sugar cane for Central Izalco or any other of Coke's sugar suppliers? And what does Coca-Cola plan to do to make sure that no child labor is used in its supply chain to produce Coke products?
This question should be asked as it pertains to Colombia as well. Lawsuits alleging human rights abuses against labor leaders by Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia are horrific, but to make matters worse, a 2008 report by the UN's International Labor Organization quoted a Coke manager in Cali saying that Coke's suppliers of raw materials such as sugar should not use child labor but added, Coke "did not yet exercise oversight of the issue."
The Mark Thomas film also highlights Coke's polluting of water sources near their bottling plants and the company's refusal to remediate the situation that is toxic and harmful to residents and wildlife.