John,

Chiquita, the world’s largest banana company, has blood all over its produce. The company was found guilty of paying a paramilitary terrorist group for “security”, but the group killed Chiquita’s workers and union leaders.

Back in 2007, the company acknowledged funding the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), and last month a federal jury in Florida accepted the argument that this money was, in fact, to pay for the AUC’s war crimes. However, the company is delaying justice to avoid compensating the victims.

Instead of assisting the families devastated by its actions, Chiquita has spent 17 years delaying the families’ court case with legal gymnastics – and it’s planning to make them wait even longer.

This month, there will be a second trial… and the company has announced it plans to appeal. We can’t let Chiquita get away with murder. The company’s brand is covered with blood, and the only way it can avoid an even bigger PR crisis is by allowing justice to be served – it’s either pay up or go down:

Chiquita: stop delaying justice and pay up for your crimes!

To try to secure its banana-growing regions from nearby violence, Chiquita gave $1.7 million to the paramilitary AUC – a designated terrorist organization – between 1997-2004. During those years, AUC murdered thousands of innocent civilians.

Legal action forced Chiquita to admit to making these murderous payments, leading to a criminal conviction in a U.S. court and a $25 million fine – paid to the government. It also settled claims by the families of 6 American victims. But the families of the Colombian victims murdered by Chiquita’s death squads got nothing.

The Ekō community was right by the families' side - we’ve successfully fundraised for their legal case. Now they are so close to the finish line and all we have to do is keep up the public pressure to ensure Chiquita isn’t getting away without giving to them what is rightfully theirs:

Chiquita: face your crimes and pay up!