A jury in South Florida has ruled that Chiquita Banana is liable for eight murders committed by a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001, received financial support from Chiquita between 1997 and 2004.
Chiquita must pay $38.3 million to 16 family members of the victims. The plaintiffs argued that Chiquita's payments to the paramilitary group fueled violence, allowing the company to acquire land at depressed values and convert it for banana farming.
From The New York Times:
Some victims who were part of the lawsuit were killed in front of their family members, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.
In one case, an unidentified girl was traveling to a farm by taxi with her mother and stepfather when they were stopped by gunmen, the lawyers said during the trial. The men executed the stepfather and then fatally shot the mother as she tried to run away. They then gave the girl the equivalent of 65 cents to take a bus back to town.
Chiquita, which was formerly known as the United Fruit Company, is also a defendant in a suit filed in Medellín, Colombia's second-largest city, asserting that payments Chiquita made to the United Self-Defense Forces rose to involvement in criminal activities.
Previously:
• Just look at the gross banana recipes in this 1940s Chiquita Banana promotional cookbook
