Colombian executives of Chiquita Brands International, the US-based banana producer-exporter-distributor, will reportedly appear before a Colombian prosecutor next week following the company’s conviction for paying paramilitary warlords, according to a local news report.
From next week onwards, 10 executives from Chiquita Brands, Banacol (Chiquita’s Colombian partner) and Banadex (Chiquita’s Colombian subsidiary), will appear before the prosecution.
Among those called to the hearing include; Reinaldo Escobar De La Hoz, former legal adviser to Chiquita; álvaro Acevedo, general manager of Banadex; Gloria Andrea Cuervo, manager of the Port of Banadex; Luis Germán Cuartas, manager of labour affairs at Banadex, and Dorn Wenninger, former legal adviser to Banadex.
Banacol executives Víctor Manuel Henríquez (manager) and Juan Diego Trujillo (general secretary general), as well as Jorge Alberto Cadavid, Javier Ochoa Vásquez and Fuad Alberto Giacomán Hasbún were also named by the public prosecutor’s office.
The prosecution hopes the local executives of the multinational will release the names of the CEOs in the US who were responsible for the deals made with the Colombian paramilitary organisation United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Earlier this year Chiquita was convicted of making monthly payments, totalling US$1.7m between 1997 and 2004, to the AUC in the regions of Urabá and Santa Marta for the “protection” of its workers.
The AUC allegedly committed hundreds of crimes against humanity in Urabá during that period, including murder and extortion.
Last year a US judge ordered Chiquita to pay a US$25m fine, after the group was found guilty of crimes against humanity. Executives of Chiquita, responsible for the deal, were never criminally prosecuted.
