US jury holds banana giant Chiquita liable for financing Colombia paramilitaries

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.

Read more: France 24