US giant Chiquita Brands International has moved to deny lawsuits against the group that have claimed the group paid money to Colombian paramilitary groups that subsequently carried out massacres, assassinations, kidnappings and intimidation in some of the country's banana producing regions.
Chiquita had previously acknowledged making payments to the United Self-Defence Force of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing group, over a seven-year period between 1997 and 2004, and had paid a US$25m fine. However, the group denies responsibility for killings the group carried out during that period.
'There are no allegations that Chiquita was directly involved in any of these incidents,' Gregg Levy, an attorney for Chiquita, told the Associated Press.
Lawyers for the Colombian plaintiffs have said that Chiquita should be held accountable for money owed in wrongful death damages following the payments, which it alleges were also paid to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The payments, lawyers for the plaintiffs claimed, went towards material support for the AUC including weapons and even access to its banana ports for cocaine trafficking, while the AUC drove out Colombian labour leaders and ruled the banana-producing regions in return.
'The AUC was engaging in murder, torture, forced disappearances and destruction of these communities,' Terry Collingsworth, representing family members of 173 people who died, told the Associated Press. 'Everybody knew this. Chiquita knew this.'
The lawsuits were filed at a hearing in front of district judge Kenneth Marra, who is expected to issue a written ruling, although there is no timescale on when that will be presented.
