MIAMI, June 11, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Victims of paramilitary violence in

Colombia on Monday secured a landmark victory against banana giant Chiquita
Brands International in a US federal court in Florida.

A jury found the company liable for financing the United Self-Defense Forces
of Colombia (AUC), a US-designated terrorist organization known for its human
rights abuses, according to EarthRights, an NGO that helped build the case.

The jury awarded the surviving family members $38.3 million in damages for
the deaths of eight victims.

The eight plaintiffs in this case were the family of the victims, who include
husbands and sons targeted and killed by the AUC, according to their lawyers.

"Our clients risked their lives to come forward to hold Chiquita to account,
putting their faith in the United States justice system," said Agnieszka
Fryszman, one of the attorneys leading the case.

Chiquita in 2007 confessed in a US court to having financed the AUC from 1997
to 2004, which was then designated as a foreign terrorist organization in the
United States.

That designation made supporting the AUC a federal crime.

The company has said that it was a victim of extortion when it paid the money
to the group.

The plaintiffs alleged that Chiquita paid the AUC nearly $2 million, despite
knowing that the group was engaged in a reign of terror.

The jury accepted the argument that the money transferred to the
paramilitaries was used to commit war crimes such as homicides, kidnappings,
extortion, torture and forced disappearances.

The AUC wreaked terror on the country in the 1990s as part of a bitter war
against Colombian far-left guerrillas, aided at times by members of the armed
forces.

The group laid down arms in 2006, confessing to crimes and agreeing to
compensate victims.

Marco Simons, general counsel at EarthRights International, hailed the
verdict as "a powerful message to corporations everywhere: profiting from
human rights abuses will not go unpunished."

Simons also praised the courage of the families who prevailed against a major
American company in the judicial process.