After a six-week trial, yesterday the US justice system found the banana company Chiquita Brands responsible for financing paramilitary groups in Colombia. After the ruling, today President Gustavo Petro questioned whether the justice system in that country had issued a final decision, while in Colombia that had not happened to date.
“Why could US justice determine in judicial truth that Chiquita Brands financed paramilitarism in Urabá? Why couldn’t Colombian justice?” said the president. In addition, he also questioned why Colombia does not have a single truth closure court, when the 2016 Peace Agreement orders it.
In Colombia, the case against Chiquita has not moved for five years. Since 2019, the court case against the banana company is still. That year, the Prosecutor’s Office accused ten senior executives of the subsidiaries of conspiracy to commit a crime, but that was the last decision that the justice system made in the case.
One of the accused is Álvaro Acevedo González, former manager and former legal representative between 2001 and 2004 of Banadex, one of the most productive subsidiaries of Chiquita Brands. In that period, according to the indictment, 18 payments were made to Convivir for more than $1.4 billion pesos. This is how El Espectador tells it.
Compensation to victims. The ruling of the South Florida Court, United States, benefits a first group of nine victims whose relatives were murdered and who denounced the multinational 17 years ago. They must receive million-dollar compensation, since the Colombian Civil Code must be applied, which states that the company must repair the damage caused.
The ruling says that the banana company’s help to paramilitary groups increased the risk for community members. The company will have one month to decide whether to appeal this first ruling against it.
#Colombia
