{"id":70539,"date":"2024-06-11T16:07:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T16:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/chiquita-held-liable-for-deaths-during-colombian-civil-war\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T16:07:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T16:07:03","slug":"chiquita-held-liable-for-deaths-during-colombian-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/chiquita-held-liable-for-deaths-during-colombian-civil-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiquita Held Liable for Deaths During Colombian Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/12\/multimedia\/12colombia-chiquita-hvbj\/12colombia-chiquita-hvbj-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Chiquita Held Liable for Deaths During Colombian Civil War\" title=\"Chiquita Held Liable for Deaths During Colombian Civil War\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A jury in South Florida has ruled that Chiquita Brands is liable for eight killings carried out by a right-wing paramilitary group that the company helped finance in a fertile banana-growing region of Colombia during the country\u2019s decades-long internal conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The jury on Monday ordered the multinational banana producer to pay $38.3 million to 16 family members of farmers and other civilians who were killed in separate episodes by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia \u2014 a right-wing paramilitary group that Chiquita bankrolled from 1997 to 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The company has faced hundreds of similar suits in U.S. courts filed by the families of other victims of violence by the paramilitary group in Colombia, but the verdict in Florida represents the first time Chiquita has been found culpable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The decision, which the company said it planned to appeal, could influence the outcome in other suits, legal experts said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The verdict in favor of the victims is a rare instance \u2014 in Colombia and elsewhere \u2014 in which a private corporation is held accountable to victims for its operation in regions with widespread violence or social unrest, legal experts said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019re very happy about the jury\u2019s verdict, but you can\u2019t escape that we\u2019re talking about horrific abuses,\u201d said Marco Simons, a lawyer for EarthRights International, an environmental and human rights group, who represented one family in the legal claim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Agnieszka Fryszman, another lawyer who represented the plaintiffs, said, \u201cThe verdict does not bring back the husbands and sons who were killed, but<strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\"> <\/strong>it sets the record straight and places accountability for funding terrorism where it belongs: at Chiquita\u2019s doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The jurors reached their decision after two days of deliberation and six weeks of trial in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, in which lawyers argued over the motivation for payments that Chiquita executives admitted making to the paramilitary group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The State Department designated the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia as <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/2001-2009.state.gov\/secretary\/former\/powell\/remarks\/2001\/4852.htm\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a foreign terrorist organization<\/a> in 2001.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Chiquita, as part of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/03\/14\/world\/americas\/14iht-chiquita.4911522.html\" title=\"\">a plea deal with the Department of Justice<\/a> to settle charges of doing business with a terrorist group, admitted in 2007 to having paid the paramilitaries $1.7 million, as an investigation revealed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United Self-Defense Forces were a product of Colombia\u2019s brutal civil war, which erupted in the 1960s and killed at least 220,000 people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They formed in 1997 as a coalition of heavily armed far-right groups that drug traffickers and businesspeople turned to for protection from leftist guerrilla groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The war ended in 2016 when the government and the main leftist group, which was also responsible for killing civilians, signed a peace deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lawyers representing the families in the South Florida trial argued that Chiquita\u2019s operations benefited from the company\u2019s relationship with the paramilitary group, which sowed fear across a 7,000-square-mile fertile farming region connecting Panama and Colombia until it disbanded in 2006.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They said the group killed or forced out farmers, allowing Chiquita to buy land at depressed values and expand its operations by converting plantain farms to more profitable banana farms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Lawyers representing Chiquita questioned whether the victims had been killed by the paramilitaries or by other armed groups and said that the company\u2019s employees had also been threatened by the paramilitaries. Executives and employees, defense lawyers said, were being extorted by the self-defense forces and made payments to ensure their safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe situation in Colombia was tragic for so many,\u201d Chiquita said in a statement after the verdict. \u201cHowever, that does not change our belief that there is no legal basis for these claims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some victims who were part of the lawsuit were killed in front of their family members, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In one case, an unidentified girl was traveling to a farm by taxi with her mother and stepfather when they were stopped by gunmen, the lawyers said during the trial. The men executed the stepfather and then fatally shot the mother as she tried to run away. They then gave the girl the equivalent of 65 cents to take a bus back to town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Chiquita, which was formerly known as the United Fruit Company, is also a defendant in a suit filed in Medell\u00edn, Colombia\u2019s second-largest city, asserting that payments Chiquita made to the United Self-Defense Forces rose to involvement in criminal activities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe name Chiquita resonates in the recent history of the country,\u201d said Sebasti\u00e1n Escobar Uribe, one of the lawyers in the Medell\u00edn suit. \u201cWhen you investigate a corporation with significant financial muscle in a country like Colombia, the judicial system is vulnerable to being co-opted by that company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the United States, it is unusual to hold a corporation financially liable for human rights violations beyond the country\u2019s borders, said James Anaya, who teaches international human rights at the University of Colorado Law School.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The lawsuit that resulted in the South Florida verdict had been winding its way through the court system since it was filed in 2007 and withstood several legal challenges to reach a trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s not impossible for these cases to happen,\u201d Mr. Anaya said. \u201cThere\u2019s certainly a path for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But, he added: \u201cIt\u2019s not common. Everything has to fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Human rights advocates in Colombia lauded the jury\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gerardo Vega, the former director of Colombia\u2019s National Land Agency, which is responsible for returning land to people who were displaced by force, said in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GerardoVegaMed\/status\/1800286766470930866\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">video<\/a> statement that the ruling was a vindication of the fight against impunity in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Colombian justice system should also act,\u201d Mr. Vega said. \u201cWe need Colombian judges to convict the businesspeople who, just like Chiquita, were paying\u201d paramilitary groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Raquel Sena, the widow of a farmworker who was killed in the banana-producing region, said in an interview with a Colombian radio station that the United Self-Defense Forces had killed him after he refused to sell them his plot of farmland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m never going to overcome his death,\u201d she said in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/forjandofuturos\/status\/1800325605780513175\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">video<\/a> posted on X. \u201cWe want Chiquita Brands to acknowledge us because they\u2019re the ones who paid for people to get killed here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/11\/world\/americas\/chiquita-banana-lawsuit-colombia.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A jury in South Florida has ruled that Chiquita Brands is liable for eight killings carried out by a right-wing paramilitary group that the company helped finance in a fertile banana-growing region of Colombia during the country\u2019s decades-long internal conflict. The jury on Monday ordered the multinational banana producer to pay $38.3 million to 16 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/12\/multimedia\/12colombia-chiquita-hvbj\/12colombia-chiquita-hvbj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65504,7799,65505,5551,3502,46311,3102],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70541,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70539\/revisions\/70541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}