A landmark ruling in a case that sought to hold a major U.S. corporation liable for its links to human rights abuses in another country. On Monday, in Florida, a federal jury ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay over $38 million in damages to the families of eight Colombian men who were killed by paramilitaries that Chiquita funded. The banana giant previously pleaded guilty to paying the far-right United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia paramilitary group, known as the AUC, $1.7 million from 2001 to 2004, which Chiquita argued it did to protect its workers. The AUC has been found responsible for committing mass human rights abuses and murdering civilians from 1997 to 2006. Federal prosecutors argued Chiquita’s support for the AUC was, quote, “prolonged, steady, and substantial.” This is Raquel Sena, widow of one of the killed
So, the jury in this case ruled that Chiquita was responsible for financing the AUC paramilitary death squads over a period of at least seven years, found that Chiquita was unreasonable, in the legal sense of that, in doing so, and that this funding contributed to the deaths of the plaintiffs’ family members at issue here. And importantly, the jury also specifically rejected Chiquita’s defense that they had put up, which was that they were extorted and under duress, that, essentially, they were making these payments in order to save lives. The jury ruled that Chiquita did not meet any of the requirements for the duress defense. They found that Chiquita was not under an imminent threat, that Chiquita essentially voluntarily put itself in position where they would have to make these payments, and that they found that Chiquita had other options other
— source democracynow.org | Jun 12, 2024