Chiquita Brands executives convicted of financing paramilitaries by Colombian courts
Seven directors face 11 years of jailtime in a historic case that has dragged on for decades
On Wednesday, Colombian courts sentenced 7 executives from the controversial international banana company, Chiquita Brands, to 11 years in prison for payments to paramilitary group the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) during the country’s civil war.
The defendants were also ordered to pay a fine of 14 billion Colombian pesos ($750,000) for “criminal conspiracy”. The conviction states that Chiquita paid a total of $1.7 million to the AUC in the 1990s in return for protection of their operations.
The AUC, which was disbanded in the early 2000s, is one of Colombia’s most infamous death squads, and are responsible for thousands of murders, kidnappings, assassinations of union leaders and activists, torture and a long list of other human rights organizations.
The historic ruling comes after more than two decades of impunity for Chiquita, part of a larger pattern of right-wing prosecutors who often turned a blind eye to the contributions of the private sector to paramilitary forces.
The payments by Chiquita were laundered through two Colombian subsidiary companies of the banana giant: Banadex and BanaCol. Court documents show that company records indicate 3 cents on every dollar of income from banana crops went to the AUC from 1994 to 2002.
The payments, like many others to the AUC during that period, were organized through “Convivir” programs — a legal system that allowed the private sector to hire security firms to protect their interests during the civil war. In theory, groups like AUC were prohibited from receiving money through Convivir programs.
In practice, however, Convivir often acted as a laundering mechanism for the AUC to receive funding from companies that opposed Colombia’s rebels at the time.
In the ruling, the judge rejected the defense presented by Chiquita directors. On the one hand, they argued that they were unaware that Convivir structures in the region was controlled by the paramilitary group.
But they also claimed that the payments to AUC were coerced from them under threat of violence. The judge ruled that both premises were not possible at the same time. “These contradictions weaken the credibility of Banadex officials and allow us to conclude that…defendants knew the destination of the payments,” he wrote in the ruling.
According to the court statements, the money was used to finance illegal operations by the armed group, including the murders of social leaders and peasants, forced disappearances, torture, displacement, and the purchase of 3,000 AK-47 rifles and five million cartridges
“Chiquita Brands and its subsidiary Banadex, despite being aware of the public order situation, the climate of violence and death in the area, and suspicions about the legality of the payments, turned a blind eye,” wrote the court. “First, they were protected by the government and the army, and second, it seems that Colombian law was irrelevant to an American multinational, whose rules and regulations are not applicable in this territory.”
It is uncertain whether all of the defendants will actually serve jailtime. Charles Dennis Keiser, manager of Banadex (a subsidiary of Chiquita in Colombia) between 1990 and March 2000, is a US citizen.
Jose Luis Valverde Ramírez, manager of Chiquita from 2000 to 2002, lives in Costa Rica. Álvaro Acevedo González, manager between 2002 and June 2004, emigrated to Florida.
Victor Julio Buitrago Sandoval, the company's security director between 1999 and 2004, resides in Panama. John Paul Olivo, the comptroller of the Chiquita company from 1996 to December 2001, resides in Cincinnati.
And Fuad Alberto Giacoman Hasbún, comptroller between 2002 and 2004, is currently in Honduras.
The other defendants currently live in Colombia.
Last year, Chiquita was held responsible in U.S. civil courts for making illegal payments to the AUC as well.
The court case also mentioned former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who was the governor of Antioquia at the time. Uribe, who is currently awaiting a verdict for witness tampering, has long been accused of direct ties to paramilitary forces in the country.
You can also donate a one-time gift via “Buy Me a Coffee”. It only takes a few moments, and you can do so here.
And if you can’t do any of that, please do help us by sharing the piece! We don’t have billionaire PR teams either. haha
Hasta pronto, piratas!