[Chiquita] pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court last month to one count of engaging in transactions with a terrorist group and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. In defending its actions, company executives portrayed the paramilitaries as armed enemies who coerced Chiquita's Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, into coughing up the money. But Colombian law enforcement officials, political analysts and banana workers describe a more cordial relationship. They claim Chiquita and other banana firms were content to pay the paramilitaries to rid their plantations of guerrillas, who had kidnapped and murdered company personnel, and to kill rebel sympathizers who had dominated the banana unions....In an interview...Chiquita spokesman Michael Mitchell strongly rejected that assessment. [also refers to Drummond]