A federal jury in Florida decided this week that American produce giant Chiquita Brands should pay $38.3 million to the families of eight people killed in Colombia by members of a paramilitary faction Chiquita had funded over the years.
The jury’s decision on June 10 is part of a long-running civil lawsuit against Chiquita, a major global grower and distributor of bananas and other produce. The plaintiffs in the case are a group of nine families of people allegedly killed in the 1990s and early 2000s by members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, which is known by the Spanish acronym AUC and in English as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
