Demand Chiquita Stop Funding Violence in Colombia

For nearly half a century, Colombia has been the backdrop for one of the modern world's lengthiest civil conflicts. The violence may have domestic roots, but the war has been exacerbated by international actors. Multinational corporations set up shop in Colombia to take advantage of the chaos and lawlessness brought on by constant clashes between guerrilla, government and rightwing paramilitary forces.

Chiquita Brands—the heir of the notorious United Fruit Company—is among the worst corporate offenders.

By Chiquita's own admission, the company funded rightwing paramilitary groups via its Colombian subsidiary Banadex until 2004; the confession came two years after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed the rightwing paramilitary groups Chiquita was funding as terrorist organizations, making the payments illegal. After the U.S. government demanded Chiquita stop making payments (which Chiquita executives claim were made under duress and to protect their workers), Banadex’s landholdings were sold to Banacol, a Colombian company.

Paramilitary violence has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths Colombia-wide, upwards of 4 million displacements and the severe repression of workers and peasants suspected to be union organizers or guerrilla sympathizers.

Now, human rights organizers and workers claim Banacol—the firm that now owns most of the ex-Banadex farms—is up to the same hijinks Chiquita once used to repress worker dissent. In a process that has lasted nearly a decade, Banacol has usurped lands from villages in Chocó department using paramilitaries and proxy growers to intimidate local Afro-Colombian farmers.

Residents say the displacement has not only deprived them of their lands (which, under Colombian law, are designated as collective farms for Afro-Colombian communities), but has led to a campaign of targeted assassinations, violence and threats against community members. The same residents also say the proxy growers, who they have deemed “invaders,” claim they are backed by paramilitaries, who in turn are backed by Banacol, and that the invaders's crops are purchased entirely by Banacol.

Currently, Banacol provides roughly 10% of all Chiquita bananas, more than any other supplier in the world. By supporting Banacol, Chiquita is indirectly funding paramilitary groups, an act forbidden by current U.S. law.

Demand Chiquita (and its Big Ag cronies, like Dole Foods) stop funding the paraeconomy—an alliance between paramilitaries and the business sector—and help stamp out the violence in Colombia!

Chiquita: STOP BUYING BANACOL!