A South Florida federal court on Monday found U.S. multinational banana producer Chiquita Brands International guilty of funding Colombian militias and ordered it to pay $38.3 million to the militia’s victims, according to multiple statements.
“Chiquita deliberately [Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia or] An eight-judge jury in the U.S. District Court for South Florida returned a verdict of “AUC,” for creating a “foreseeable risk of harm to others.” According to the statement: From the National Security Archive (NSA): Nine people were killed in the attack, but the court reportedly found that the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) killed eight of the victims and that Chiquita was responsible.
The AUC is a “brutal paramilitary death squad” according to EarthRights International represents a joint group of nine victims of the militia. The AUC was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2001 for atrocities committed in the 1990s and 2000s, according to the NSA statement. The group was also involved in drug trafficking, land grabbing, kidnappings, disappearances and extortion, among other crimes disguised as counterinsurgency operations. according to Insight Crime.
The jury also ruled that Chiquita “did not act like a prudent businessman” and failed to prove that AUC had actually threatened him or that “he had no reasonable choice but to pay the money,” according to a statement from the NSA.
Earthrise and the NSA announced the end of 17 years of litigation after several weeks of court battles.
The court ruled that $38.3 million in damages must be paid to the families of the eight men killed by the AUC. According to the statement: The case was handled by the law firm of Cohen Milstein, which also represents the victims.
Following the U.S. government’s designation of the AUC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 10, 2001, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization on October 31, 2001, it became a federal crime for U.S. organizations or individuals to provide funds to the AUC. according to U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Chiquita subsequently voluntarily disclosed its payments to AUC to the U.S. government in April 2003. That disclosure triggered the federal investigation, according to the Department of Justice. Through its Colombian subsidiary, Vanadex, which was its most profitable subsidiary by 2003, Chiquita paid AUC more than $1.7 million in more than 100 installments between sometime in 1997 and February 4, 2004. 2007 Judgment Memo Memos held by the NSA described Chiquita’s payments through Banadex to right-wing terrorist militias in the Urabá and Santa Marta regions of Colombia, where it has banana-growing operations. The memos said Chiquita made some of the payments against legal advice.
The prosecution argued that Chiquita had an “immoral alliance” with the AUC, while the defense argued that Chiquita was being blackmailed and had no choice but to pay the AUC, according to the NSA.
According to the verdict, Chiquita paid bribes to two Colombian leftist terrorist organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), when they controlled the regions where the company operated its banana-growing operations. (Related: Chiquita Bananas Block 9/11 Victims Bill)
Banana giant Chiquita Brands International must pay more than $38 million in damages to victims of Colombian paramilitary groups that the company allegedly funded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. https://t.co/oeVJ4topGT
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 11, 2024
Colombia’s decades-long civil war, which began in the 1960s and was fought by a variety of militias, has left at least 220,000 people dead, The New York Times reported. report.
According to the Department of Justice, Chiquita pleaded guilty in 2007 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to “one count of engaging in trafficking with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” The company agreed to pay $25 million in criminal penalties and other penalties.
But Monday’s ruling marks the first time that Chiquita will have to answer to victims of AUC human rights abuses, according to the NSA. Chiquita reportedly settled a lawsuit brought by the families of six FARC victims in 2018.
The NSA said AUC’s nine lawsuits were pioneering cases and that there are hundreds of AUC victims. EarthRights called Monday’s ruling “historic.” One victim called the ruling a victory and said Chiquita’s actions had prompted the families to bring the lawsuits to justice. “We have a responsibility to the families and we have to fight for them,” the victim said, according to EarthRights.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded to the verdict: Contact us on Twitter Why has the Colombian judicial system failed to deliver justice in such cases?
“Funding terrorist organizations can never be treated as a cost of doing business,” then-U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said in 2007, according to the Justice Department.
