A south Florida jury has found Chiquita Brands International liable for $38.3 million in damages related to the deaths of eight civilians because the banana company funded a U.S.-designated terrorist group during Colombia’s civil war.
A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida handed down the verdict June 10, finding that Chiquita was liable for the deaths due to its funding of the now-disbanded Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1997 and 2004. During the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. Justice Department described the AUC as a violent, right-wing paramilitary group that engaged in terrorist activities.
Chiquita made more than 100 payments totaling $1.7 million to the AUC as “protection money” through its Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, according to the Justice Department. The company was engaged in profitable banana-producing operations in Colombia when the payments were made.
In their verdict, jurors found that the preponderance of the evidence presented showed the AUC killed eight of nine unnamed civilians whose families were parties to the lawsuit, which was filed by the group EarthRights and several law firms in Florida. Jurors did not conclude that Chiquita made the payments due to an impending AUC threat to its employees and property or that the company was coerced to provide the assistance.
A Chiquita spokesperson told the Florida Record in an email that the company would appeal the verdict.
“The situation in Colombia was tragic for so many, including those directly affected by the violence there, and our thoughts remain with them and their families,” the spokesperson said. “However, that does not change our belief that there is no legal basis for these claims. While we are disappointed by the decision, we remain confident that our legal position will ultimately prevail.”
In 2007, the company paid a $25 million criminal fine to the United States as a result of the AUC payments and was required to implement an ethics program and serve five years’ probation. At one point, the company’s outside counsel urged Chiquita to stop making the payments and to leave Colombia, according to the Justice Department.
“Funding a terrorist organization can never be treated as a cost of doing business," U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor said in a prepared statement in 2007. “American businesses must take note that payments to terrorists are of a whole different category. They are crimes.”
EarthRights said the court decision marked the first time that a U.S. jury has held an American company responsible for serious human rights abuses abroad. Hundreds more victims were killed by the AUC during the civil war, meaning additional litigation must be resolved through a settlement or more trials, according to the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
“It’s a triumph of a process that has been going on for almost 17 years, for all of us who have suffered so much during these years,” one of the victim’s family members said in a prepared statement. “There’s a debate about justice and reparation; we’ve been fighting since 2007. We’re not in this process because we want to be; it was Chiquita, with its actions, that dragged us into it. We have a responsibility to our families, and we must fight for them.”
The AUC was active from 1997 until 2006 and was responsible for attacks in six regions of Colombia, according to Stanford University’s Mapping Militants Project. The Chiquita payments to the group were approved by senior executives of the corporation, according to the Justice Department.