Chiquita seeks dismissal in Colombian case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Chiquita seeks dismissal in Colombian case

Published: September 21, 2013 Updated 27 minutes ago
By CURT ANDERSON — AP Legal Affairs Writer

MIAMI — Faced with potentially billions of dollars in legal liability, Chiquita Brands International is asking a federal appeals court to block lawsuits filed against it in the U.S. by thousands of Colombians whose relatives were killed in that country's bloody, decades-long civil war.

The produce giant, which long had huge banana plantations in Colombia, has admitted paying a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group $1.7 million over a seven-year period. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company insists it was blackmailed into paying or risking violence against its own operations and employees, although in 2007 Chiquita pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges that it had supported terrorists. It paid a $25 million fine.

The Colombian lawsuits, consolidated for pretrial action before a federal judge in West Palm Beach, want Chiquita held liable for thousands of deaths at the hands of the AUC, the Spanish acronym for the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The Colombian relatives have won several key pretrial rulings, but now Chiquita is taking its fight for dismissal to a new level.

In essence, Chiquita wants the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the lawsuits because, the company claims, each murder cannot be tied specifically to the company. It's not enough, Chiquita's lawyers say in court papers, to assume the company's payments to the AUC meant Chiquita knew about and supported those individual killings.

Read more: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/09/21/2585138/chiquita-seeks-dismissal-in-colombian.html#storylink=cpy

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Next up....

Juan Valdez sues Yuban's ass.

[hollysmom]

2. I love bananas, but am having a hard time finding

bananas other than Dole or CHiquita. they are on my don't buy list.

[Divernan]

3. When I read the headline, I knew it was one of your posts, Judi Lynn.

Thank you for the years during which you have put in yeoman's service to keep DU readers aware and informed of what's going on in Central and Latin America. This is a tragic story of hundreds of families whose members were brutally and wantonly murdered by a group subsidized by an American corporation. I'm sure you've sensitized and educated many DUers on the exploitation by American corporations in that part of the world. Sadly, there are still some who post wise-ass remarks about "Juan Valdez". So you still have work to do with that bunch.

I urge everyone to read the entire article. It is long but well-written.

Here's one small part of the OP link:

Three women who lost relatives to the AUC and are among the plaintiffs in lawsuits against Chiquita agreed to speak by phone recently with The Associated Press from the town of Apartado, Colombia. They spoke on condition that their names not be used because they fear retribution from former paramilitary members, many of whom still live in the area and have powerful political connections. Human rights groups say many former paramilitary members have reorganized into what are called "emerging criminal bands" involved in extortion and racketeering.

One of the women, a 48-year-old who makes a small income sitting for a neighbor's baby, said paramilitary troops descended on her home in 2000 while her husband and a friend were working in their garden. The troops requested identification papers and demanded to know whether there were weapons for the leftist guerrillas hidden in the home. She said they ransacked the home and found none, and she fled with the couple's infant child.

"When he let me go, I ran with my girl and jumped over the (garden) wall. I don't even know how I did that. I'd never done it before," the woman said between sobs. When she returned to her home with neighbors, she found her husband shot dead on their kitchen floor. Now, she said, the Chiquita lawsuit gives her some hope for justice and a better life for herself and her two children.

"I am fighting for my children, so that they can have some help after all this time," the woman said

.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/09/21/2585138/chiquita-seeks-dismissal-in-colombian.html#storylink=cpy

[Ducksworthy]

4. Quick Quiz

What do John McCain, the S&l Crisis and Bebe Rebozo have in common with Columbian death squads? (Ans. Carl Lindner)