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"The uphill battle to hold US corporations accountable for abuses abroad", 8 Aug 2014
"In June 2024, a federal court jury found...Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a brutal paramilitary death squad, and awarded...a total of $38 million [to the plaintiffs], with each Plaintiff’s award being at or above two million dollars. On October 18, 2024, the presiding judge rejected Chiquita’s motion to reduce the jury award to approximately $50,000 for each plaintiff..."
Chiquita Brands International plans to appeal a US federal court ruling ordering $38.3m in damages to families of Colombian paramilitary victims. The company maintains its payments to AUC were extortion, not collusion. Chiquita was previously fined $25m in 2007 for paying protection money to paramilitaries from 2001-2004.
A U.S. court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38.3 million to Colombian families after finding the company liable for financing a paramilitary group responsible for their relatives' deaths.
"Six-week jury trial is the first of a series of bellwether trials in 16-year wrongful death lawsuit. In 2007, Chiquita pled guilty to a federal crime arising out of its payments to the terror group responsible for the murders."
A federal court jury in West Palm Beach ruled against Chiquita Brands International, awarding $38.3 million to Plaintiffs in a landmark case regarding Chiquita's financial support of the violent Colombian paramilitary group AUC from 1996 to 2004.
"After 17 years of litigation, a monumental win for victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia before a court in the United States."
The trial against Chiquita follows more than a decade of litigation over illegal payments the banana giant made to Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, a militant group known to kidnap and kill civilians.
"The decision overturns a lower court ruling and reinstates claims against Chiquita in a historic lawsuit over the company’s role in funding paramilitary groups in Colombia."
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed additional evidence to be admitted in a case involving Chiquita's alleged backing of a Colombian terrorist organisation, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). Family members of victims allegedly murdered by the group seek to hold the banana company liable for financing the AUC, as the families argue that the murders would not have occurred without such support. The Court partially overturned the verdict of the lower court, which had excluded expert testimony and circumstantial evidence.