A few days ago a court in the United States condemned the company Chiquita Brands for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and, with this, having generated conditions for the development of their actions, which includes violations of the human rights of the civilian population in Urabá Antioqueño and Magdalena Medio.
This decision, which especially has a civil impact by condemning the company to pay compensation, is key to understanding why it is necessary to develop in Colombia models of civil and criminal liability for companies created specifically to commit crimes or that are directly linked to acts criminals, as well as improve the conditions of investigation, trial and punishment of those people who, fulfilling a specific role in companies, contributed to the serious situation of violation of human rights generated by the internal armed conflict.
Ordinary justice, especially the Attorney General’s Office, and the transitional justice mechanisms implemented in the last two decades in the country have not been able to respond to the responsibility of civil third parties. (non-combatants or State authorities) about what happened in the conflict.
Unfortunately, third parties were excluded from the mandatory jurisdiction of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Therefore, these can only go to the JEP voluntarily and it is the Attorney General’s Office who can investigate them. For its part, in the Justice and Peace process, nearly 17,000 certified copies have been sent to the Attorney General’s Office to investigate, among others, third parties (including businessmen, merchants and companies) who allegedly sponsored the armed conflict. . The same occurs in matters of land restitution, where judicial decisions have indicated that a good part of the companies opposing the processes did not acquire the property in good faith, free of fault, they did not act with due diligence. diligence and participated in the loot, certifying copies to the Prosecutor’s Office for investigation.
These justice experiences have not been able to reverse the existing impunity in relation to civil third parties and, although they have existed and There are investigations, as well as some clarifications, the sanctions are few.
As expressed by the Truth Commission in the Findings and Recommendations chapter (page 180), “Impunity has favored, among other effects, the persistence of human rights violations, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Attorney General’s Office has on many occasions been omissive in the investigation and prosecution of serious violations of human rights and infractions of IHL, from which armed actors, some national and multinational companies, political actors and third parties have benefited. For the moment, the investigation and prosecution against those responsible is limited to some archived investigations, stagnant or consolidated, or to some sentences handed down by ordinary justice or transitional justice.”
The case of Chiquita Brands, as well as its predecessor United Fruit Company, is an example of a complex phenomenon that requires greater efforts in terms of justice and truth. Responsibility cannot remain solely under the ownership of some people who operated the company, as if they were merely personal decisions, but must bind the legal entity. The effects of their participation in the armed conflict are diversebased on financing and collaboration, and substantially impacted the capacity, means and methods of warfare of armed groups.
Chiquita Brands’ financing of the AUC, which was tested in 2007 and now has compensatory effects on its victims, shows that the companies were not only victims of the conflict, as actually happened, but that unfortunately some of them became part of it.
There is a fight against impunity that must be carried out with greater intensity, reaching all actors in the conflict, to demand not only due diligence, but rather the investigation, trial and punishment of those who are responsible and must compensate their victims. and recognize what happened. The responsibility of the companies that were directly linked to the armed conflict is not small.
