Newark, New Jersey, July 19 – Colombian families represented by EarthRights International (ERI), together with the Colombian Institute of International Law (CIIL), Judith Brown Chomsky, and Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP (SDSHH), filed a federal class-action lawsuit charging Chiquita Brands International, Inc., the multi-national produce company, with funding and arming known terrorist organizations in Colombia in order to maintain its profitable control of Colombia’s banana growing regions starting in the mid-1990s. Chiquita’s payments to these paramilitary groups, including the United Self-Defense Committees of Colombia (Autodefensorias Unidas de Colombia, or AUC) and its predecessors, were reviewed and approved by senior executives of the corporation, and resulted in the targeted killings of hundreds or thousands of individuals, including trade unionists, banana workers, and political organizers. The case is brought on behalf of relatives of the deceased and has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The complaint, brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, asserts that Chiquita’s involvement violates not only Colombian law and U.S. law, but also international law prohibiting crimes against humanity, extrajudicial killing, torture, war crimes, and other abuses.  The case seeks unspecified damages; because it is being brought as a class action, damages could be awarded to each victim of the paramilitaries supported by Chiquita, which is likely to amount to millions of dollars each to hundreds or thousands of families.

 Click here to read the official complaint.