Chiquita liable for financing Colombian paramilitaries: Jury

FLORIDA

Victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia have secured a landmark victory against banana giant Chiquita Brands International in a U.S. federal court in Florida.

A jury found the company liable for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization known for its human rights abuses, according to EarthRights, an NGO that helped build the case.

The jury awarded the surviving family members $38.3 million in damages for the deaths of 8 victims.

The 8 plaintiffs in this case were the family of the victims, who include husbands and sons targeted and killed by the AUC.

Chiquita in 2007 confessed in a U.S. court to having financed the AUC from 1997 to 2004, which was then designated as a foreign terrorist organization in the United States.

That designation made supporting the AUC a federal crime.

The company has said that it was a victim of extortion when it paid the money to the group.

The plaintiffs alleged that Chiquita paid the AUC nearly $2 million, despite knowing that the group was engaged in a reign of terror.

The jury accepted the argument that the money transferred to the paramilitaries was used to commit war crimes such as homicides, kidnappings, extortion, torture and forced disappearances.

The AUC wreaked terror on the country in the 1990s as part of a bitter war against Colombian far-left guerrillas, aided at times by members of the armed forces.

The group laid down arms in 2006, confessing to crimes and agreeing to compensate victims.