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Chiquita Brands Internationalone of the banana companies with the longest history in the world, was found guilty of financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia with a sum of US$1.7 million between 1997 and 2004. A judge from the Southern District of Florida determined that the money transferred by the multinational was used to commit war crimes.
The American multinational, which was founded in 1870, had a long history in the Colombian market, until it ceased operations in 2004. Many of the episodes in which she was involved marked the history of the country, as was the case of the Banana Massacre, when it was still called United Fruit Company.
Read More: What is Chiquita Brands, the company that must compensate victims of paramilitaries in Colombia?
This company, which was founded in 1899 after a merger between the Boston Fruit Company and the Minor C. Keith railroad company, was involved in the killing of its workers at the hands of the National Army, to put an end to a strike organized by the multinational’s employees’ union.
After going bankrupt in the 1970s, the company reorganized as Chiquita Brands International and, its subsidiary in Colombia, was involved since the late 1990s with paramilitarism, a patronage that was discovered by the authorities in 2004.
Find out: A jury in Florida, United States, convicted Chiquita Brands of financing the paramilitaries
After a 17-year litigation, which began in 2007 with a series of civil lawsuits filed by nine victims, The company confessed to having incurred said payments that same year, in a period between 1997 and 2004. The files recorded that the senior managers of the parent company in the United States were aware of the payments made to the AUC by the Colombian subsidiary.
Despite being obliged to deliver US$38.3 million to the victims for their financing of the self-defense groups, the company indicated that it made the payments to achieve the protection of its employees, something that the authorities could not verify.
The company, which has a presence in almost 70 countries with its flagship brand employing around 18,000 people, assured throughout the process that the payments were made under pressure and extortion, but the testimonies of the victims and chief members of the AUC condemned the veracity of what was reported by the multinational.
