Lawsuits|According to Chiquita’s defense, the company ended up funding the AUC after it threatened the company with “consequences” if it did not agree to give the paramilitary group money.
American the banana company Chiquita has to pay huge compensations for financing the so-called death squads in Colombia. They talk about it, among other things BBC, The Guardian and The New York Times.
The right-wing paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) received funding from Chiquita between 1997 and 2004.
The group was founded in the early 1980s and was originally intended to protect Colombian landowners from rebel leftist groups.
However, over the years, the AUC grew into one of the most violent paramilitary groups in South America. It has countless human rights violations on its account. The group has also been actively involved in the drug trade.
Chiquita was sued by the families of eight men murdered by the AUC. Those murdered were, among others, union activists and banana plantation workers.
A South Florida court ordered Chiquita to pay more than $38 million in compensation to the families.
Families litigated against Chiquita for 17 years. According to lawyers representing the families, Chiquita benefited from its relationship with AUC.
Chiquita already admitted in 2007 that it financed AUC with a total of 1.7 million dollars for seven years. However, at that time the company was not yet sentenced to pay compensation to the families of the AUC victims.
According to Chiquita’s defense, the company ended up funding the AUC after it threatened the company with “consequences” if it did not agree to give the paramilitary group money. According to lawyers, Chiquita had no choice but to agree to the demands to protect its workers.
For Chiquita The South Florida ruling is the first of its kind to hold a major US company accountable for human rights abuses in another country.
Families of AUC victims have filed hundreds of similar lawsuits against Chiquita in US courts, but the South Florida court was the first to find the company guilty.
It is estimated that the judgment will now also enable other families of AUC victims to seek compensation. At the same time, it may lead to similar legal processes in which companies have to answer for human rights violations in different parts of the world.
Chiquita has announced that it intends to appeal the sentence it received.
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