Thursday, June 13, 2024 - Banana giant, Chiquita Brands has been ordered to pay $38.3 million to 16 family members of people killed during Colombia's long civil war by a violent right-wing paramilitary group funded by the company, a federal jury in Florida decided.
The verdict on Monday by a jury in West Palm Beach marks the
first time the company has been found liable in any of multiple similar
lawsuits pending elsewhere in U.S. courts, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.
'This verdict sends a powerful message to corporations
everywhere: profiting from human rights abuses will not go unpunished. These
families, victimized by armed groups and corporations, asserted their power and
prevailed in the judicial process,' Marco Simons, EarthRights International
General Counsel and one plaintiff's lawyer, said in a news release.
'The situation in Colombia was tragic for so many,'
Chiquita, whose banana operations are based in Florida, said in a statement
after the verdict. 'However, that does not change our belief that there is no
legal basis for these claims.'
According to court documents, Chiquita paid the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia - known by its Spanish acronym AUC - about $1.7
million between 1997 and 2004. The AUC is blamed for the killings of thousands
of people during those years.
Chiquita has insisted that its Colombia subsidiary, Banadex,
only made the payments out of fear that AUC would harm its employees and
operations, court records show.
Reacting to the ruling on social media, Colombian president
Gustavo Petro questioned why the U.S. justice system could 'determine' Chiquita
financed paramilitary groups, while judges in Colombia have not ruled against
the company.
'The 2016 peace deal... calls for the creation of a tribunal
that will disclose judicial truths, why don't we have one?' Petro posted on X,
referencing the year the civil conflict ended.
The verdict followed a six-week trial and two days of
deliberations. The EarthRights case was originally filed in July 2007 and was
combined with several other lawsuits.
'Our clients risked their lives to come forward to hold
Chiquita to account, putting their faith in the United States justice system. I
am very grateful to the jury for the time and care they took to evaluate the
evidence,' said Agnieszka Fryszman, another attorney in the case.
'The verdict does not bring back the husbands and sons who
were killed, but it sets the record straight and places accountability for
funding terrorism where it belongs: at Chiquita's doorstep.'
In 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty to a U.S. criminal charge
of engaging in transactions with a foreign terrorist organization - the AUC was
designated such a group by the State Department in 2001 - and agreed to pay a
$25 million fine.
The company was also required to implement a compliance and
ethics program, according to the Justice Department.
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