Banana giant Chiquita Brands must pay $38.3 million to 16 family members of people killed during Colombia’s long civil war by a violent right-wing paramilitary group funded by the company, a federal jury in Florida decided.
“This verdict sends a powerful message to corporations everywhere: profiting from human rights abuses will not go unpunished. These families, victimized by armed groups and corporations, asserted their power and prevailed in the judicial process,” Marco Simons, EarthRights International General Counsel and one plaintiff’s lawyer, said in a news release.
According to court documents, Chiquita paid the United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia – known by its Spanish acronym AUC – about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004. The AUC is blamed for the killings of thousands of people during those years. The verdict followed a six-week trial and two days of deliberations. The EarthRights case was originally filed in July 2007 and was combined with several other lawsuits.
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