Chiquita Brands International asked a judge Friday to dismiss lawsuits claiming the banana company paid Colombian paramilitary groups that killed hundreds or even thousands of people. Lawyers for Chiquita insisted that the money it paid over a seven-year period to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia had no direct connection to massacres, kidnappings, assassinations and acts of intimidation committed by the group in banana-growing regions… The company acknowledges a subsidiary had paid the right-wing paramilitary group…[b]ut its lawyers contend the company was essentially extorted by the groups that controlled areas where its bananas are grown. [also refers to Banadex (part of Chiquita)]