US banana giant ordered to pay $38m to families of Colombian men killed by death squads
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.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/11/chiquita-banana-deaths-lawsuit-colombiaOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
24 replies
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.
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.
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.
Yep.
You can be negative if you want but this is still a step in the right direction.
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.
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.
Good start st least.
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
In Minecraft?
No, maybe a fruit or water company.
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.
Not even the worst thing the US has done for bannanas.
Wait until you learn about the Coca-Cola death squads. I wish I were joking.
all the executives at the company at the time should be in jail or sent to columbia for trial.
Where do you put death squads on your PnL sheet?
"Hey Boeing, hold my beer."
the banana republic never fell
Is it bananas or peanuts?