Reply #15: Banana company, Chiquita, ‘armed guerrillas’

[Judi Lynn]

From The Times
November 16, 2007
Banana company, Chiquita, ‘armed guerrillas’

Tim Reid in Washington
Victims of the bloody paramilitary conflict in Colombia are suing the US banana company Chiquita, accusing it of funding and arming guerrilla groups blamed for torture and thousands of killings.

The lawsuit, filed in New York, seeks $7.86 billion (£4 billion) on behalf of 393 victims and their relatives. They accuse Chiquita Brands of complicity in hundreds of murders carried out by the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group known by its Spanish acronym AUC.

The company has courted controversy for more than a century amid claims about the aggressive tactics that it has used to influence the politics of the Central American countries in which it operates. In 1975 a US investigation revealed that it bribed the Government of the Honduran President – and military dictator – Oswaldo López Arellano to get banana export taxes reduced.

The company even spawned the term “Banana Republic”, first coined by the American humourist O. Henry in 1904, in reference to the American conglomerate United Fruit and its actions in Honduras. The company had dominated Central America since 1899 and changed its name to Chiquita Brands International in 1989.
(snip)

The new lawsuit makes far more serious allegations, accusing Chiquita of abetting atrocities including terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Jonathan Reiter, lawyer for the victims, said that Chiquita’s support for the AUC went beyond mere protection payments and included the shipment of thousands of rifles through a port facility owned by Banadex.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2879864.ece