Law, Power, and Justice

Wednesday 12 June 2024

Afternoon News Notes: Chiquita Banana

•              The former United Fruit Company was found civilly liable in Florida for the deaths of multiple Colombian farmers and producers.  Company executives admitted responsibility for a relationship between the company and a Colombian death squad who killed and harassed people on their behalf.  Chiquita is the new name.

•              “You can’t treat people’s lives as the cost of doing business.”  Marco Simons, EarthRights International General Counsel.  That’s exactly what Chiquita Banana (and before it, United Fruit, did).

•              This is, according to Simons, only the beginning of holding Chiquita Banana responsible for deaths, not the end. 

•              Chiquita was

•              Money is the “language corporations speak.”

•              Chiquita faces billions of dollars of liability.  We hope corporations in the future will not just take the lives of people as a cost of doing business, in this case, getting bananas as the cheapest price possible.

•              Death squad members were accused of threatening people off the land in order to secure Chiquita’s interests.  These eight deaths were only part of Chiquita’s intimidation tactics.

•              The United Self Defense Forces (auc) were not prosecuted in Colombia.  They operated between around 1997 – 2006 in Colombia.

•              Chiquita was well aware of the reputation of brutality of the AUC.

•              They conducted “social cleansing” operations. 

•              They were protecting both corporate and land-owning class.

•              Chaquita claimed that they were threatened by the AUC, but admitted that the payments were not connected to these threats.

•              Company executives claimed they could not get the “same level of support” from the Colombian military.

•              There was a prior (2007) case where Chiquita pled guilty to making payments to a terrorist organization (AUC), a federal felony.  These were criminal charges and this paved the way for this action.   Again, they paid a fine. 

•              United Fruit has an infamous history in Latin America. 

•              There are cases ongoing in Colombia. 

•              Most corporations have settled these types of cases before they went to trial.  It is believed to be the first time a US corporation was held responsible for serious human rights violations committed outside the country.

•              Bucheli, Marcelo.  Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899-2000.  (2005)

•              Schlesinger, Stephen.  Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Revised and Expanded. (2005)

News Notes: Chiquita Banana, (6/11/24) The Guardian

•              Chaquita was found to have financed a terrorist organization from 1997 to 2004.

•              This jury verdict could lead to other cases charging human rights violations committed by corporations in other countries.