CHIQUITA BANANA CORPORATION FORCED TO PAY US$25 MILLION FINE FOR SUPPORTING PARAMILITARY GROUP.

NotiSur - South American Political and Economic Affairs, May, 2007

The banana company Chiquita Brands International admitted to a US federal court in March that it had made almost US$2 million in payments to Colombia's top paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), incurring US$25 million in fines for supporting the organization, designated a terrorist group by the US State Department, and others like it.

Colombian prosecutors have since sought extradition of Chiquita executives for supporting the death squads responsible for a majority of atrocities in the country's ongoing civil war. Another US-based company, Drummond, is facing a ...