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US BANANA GIANT ORDERED TO PAY $38M TO FAMILIES OF COLOMBIAN MEN
KILLED BY DEATH SQUADS  
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Luke Taylor
June 11, 2024
The Guardian
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_ Landmark verdict against Chiquita marks first time major US company
held liable for funding human rights abuses abroad _

Paramilitary troops of the Colombian United Self-Defense Forces (AUC)
train in the mountains near Catatumbo, in Colombia on 29 January
2000., Carlos Garcia/AFP via Getty Images

 

A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m
to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary
death squad, after the US banana giant was shown to have financed the
terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2004.

The landmark ruling late on Monday came after 17 years of legal
efforts and is the first time that the fruit multinational has paid
out compensation to Colombian victims, opening the way for thousands
of others to seek restitution.

It also marks the first time a major US corporation has been held
liable for such rights abuses in another country and could lead to a
series of similar lawsuits involving rights violations across the
world.

“This verdict sends a powerful message to corporations everywhere:
profiting from human rights abuses will not go unpunished,” said
Marco Simons at EarthRights, one of the law firms representing the
families of those killed by the paramilitaries.

Chiquita pleaded guilty in 2007 to funding “a specially designated
global terrorist”
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paying the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) $1.7m
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seven years at the height of Colombia’s brutal conflict, but had
never before been ordered to pay compensation to victims.

The rightwing AUC sprang up in the 1980s to protect landowners from
leftist rebels such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(Farc), but went on to become the worst perpetrators of human rights
violations in the south American nation – and one of the country’s
largest drug-traffickers.

Until it disarmed as part of a 2004 peace process
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the AUC was responsible
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most of the civilian lives lost in Colombia’s brutal,
six-decade-long conflict, which left 450,000 people dead and millions
displaced.

Chiquita has argued that it was extorted by the AUC and that the
payments were necessary to protect its employees from armed Marxists.

Court documents show
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Chiquita continued paying the AUC after it had been designated an
international terrorist organisation in the US in 2001 and that
executives saw the payment as the “cost of doing business in
Colombia”.

New evidence presented to the Florida courts also showed that Chiquita
allowed the AUC to use its ports to import automatic rifles and its
banana boats to smuggle cocaine across the seas, human rights lawyers
at International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) said
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The civil cases were brought by the family members of trade unionists,
banana workers and activists who were tortured, killed and disappeared
by paramilitaries as they sought to control the vast banana-producing
regions of Colombia.

Some victims were forcibly disappeared by the AUC merely for being
suspected of sympathising with the rebels, the rights firms said.

Among the victims who presented evidence was the widow of a union
leader who was tortured, decapitated and dismembered by the AUC in
1997.

“It’s a triumph of a process that has been going on for almost 17
years, for all of us who have suffered so much during these years,”
said another of the victims, who asked not to be named. “We’re not
in this process because we want to be. It was Chiquita, with its
actions, that dragged us into it. We have a responsibility to our
families, and we must fight for them.”

The case was a “bellwether trial”, said Terrence Collingsworth,
executive director of IRAdvocates, one of the legal firms representing
the victims.

If the other pending cases are not resolved by negotiation, a second
bellwether trial is scheduled for 14 July.

“These brave women and the other Plaintiffs in this case have
demonstrated that corporate criminals like Chiquita can be held
accountable through courage and perseverance. Hopefully, this verdict
will inspire others to fight for corporate accountability,”
Collingsworth said in a statement
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“In my experience, corporations operating in the global economy will
do whatever they can get away with. We just showed them that there are
real consequences for corporate outlaws.”

A spokesperson for Chiquita said the company would appeal the ruling,
adding in a statement: “The situation in Colombia was tragic for so
many, including those directly affected by the violence there, and our
thoughts remain with them and their families. However, that does not
change our belief that there is no legal basis for these claims. While
we are disappointed by the decision, we remain confident that our
legal position will ultimately prevail.”

LUKE TAYLOR is a freelance journalist covering Latin America, usually
from Bogotá, Colombia. He reports for leading medical and science
publications, and also also writes news and features on conflict,
migration and the international drug trade

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* Chiquita
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* Human Rights
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* Terrorism
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* Columbia
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* U.S. Corporations
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