Landmark verdict against Chiquita marks first time major US company held liable for funding human rights abuses abroad
A Florida court has ordered Chiquita Brands International to pay $38m to the families of eight Colombian men murdered by a paramilitary death squad, after the American banana giant was shown to have financed the terrorist organisation from 1997-2004.
The landmark ruling late on Monday came after 17 years of legal efforts and is the first time that the fruit multinational has paid out compensation to Colombian victims, opening the way for thousands of others to seek restitution.
It also marks the first time a major US corporation has been held liable for such rights abuses in another country and could lead to a series of similar lawsuits involving rights violations across the world.
At a bare minimum any company that helps terrorists or supports any type of human rights abuse should be taken over and made some sort of public commodity.
Like a corporate applied eminent domain. Now all ‘profit’ goes directly into the community coffer.
Now all ‘profit’ goes directly into the community coffer.
Only after reparations have been made to everyone impacted. I’m sure there were more than eight families who were impacted by Chiquita funding terrorists for eight years and I doubt their abuses were actually limited to those eight years.
Fuck that. Take all the managers at the time, everyone who knew about this deal, and throw them all in jail for 8 counts of murder.
Chiquita ordered to pay 38 million fee to kill people.
At least now they actually have to weigh up the costs, before it was free.
For a large corp 38.3M is chump change, though.
Chiquita Brands International’s revenue is $3.1 billion. - Chiquita Brands International peak revenue was $3.1B in 2023.
Yep.
If corporations are people (Citizens United) they should be able to be tried and get the death penalty.
Japanese seppuku style for the folks running the company.
Banana giant death squads. What a world.
all the executives at the company at the time should be in jail or sent to columbia for trial.
I need to start a company so I can legally kill people.
You can also just be a police officer in the United States.
Yeah, but I might get held accountable if I kill the wrong race. _cough_white ppl
So the price to kill someone is 4.75 million? Got it.
As long as the actual people in charge (read: CEO, CTO, CFO, anyone else on the board of directors and any other executives) aren’t held directly responsible with a proper punishment that isn’t payment, the killing of people is literally just a fee of 4.75 million dollars.
Is it bananas or peanuts?
